


First Blood

by SoraKage



Series: Into the Mari-verse [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Alternate Universe - Magic, Detective Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, F/F, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Gen, Genderfluid Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Kitsune Kagami Tsurugi, Pansexual Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, References to Norse Religion & Lore, Shapeshifting, Sort Of, Temporary Character Death, Vampire Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Werewolves, she gets better
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-18 11:07:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 25,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28991190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoraKage/pseuds/SoraKage
Summary: My name used to be Marinette. I was a normal girl, with a normal life.But a single mistake pulled me into a world of magic and secrets beyond anything I could have imagined.Now I’m known as Marianne. By day, I’m a normal girl, with a not so normal life.But when night falls, I’m something more. I’m a vampire.And a detective. Can’t forget that part!This is my story.
Relationships: Juleka Couffaine/Rose Lavillant, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Sabine Cheng/Tom Dupain
Series: Into the Mari-verse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2171961
Comments: 14
Kudos: 13





	1. I am...

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [There’s More Magic Out There](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25024126) by [SorryJustAnotherPerson](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SorryJustAnotherPerson/pseuds/SorryJustAnotherPerson). 



I suppose I should start at the beginning. My name is Marianne. I’m a detective. I’m a tailor/seamstress as well. I like the second job a lot better than the first. And no, I’m not in the phonebook.

Don’t look at me like that. Its kind hard to put on a resume that your client base consists of Drow, Goblins, Mermaids, Gnomes, Dwarves, assorted fey and whatever mystical f***ery gets thrown at me on a nightly basis.

It also doesn’t help that thanks to circumstances I will be getting into later, I’m kind of stuck looking like a thirteen-year-old, even though I’m just a few months shy of sixteen. 

But, I’m getting ahead of myself. I have a story to tell and it starts with a client who approached me with a rather sizeable problem he needed to have handled quietly….

\------

Andre Bourgeois paced back and forth across the surprisingly empty lobby of the Le Grand Paris Hotel. The sun was less than an hour from setting and he knew Chloe were running dangerously short on time.

The portly politician ran his hands through his gradually receding hair as he glanced furiously at his watch.

CLANK!

His head perked up as he shot me an annoyed look as I slammed face first into the hotel’s automatic door.

“Ow! It’s times like this I wish I showed up properly on cameras…” I muttered darkly as I massaged my slightly flattened nose.

“Where have you been? It’s almost sunset!” the portly politician sputtered indignantly.

“I got tied up with important business. And your parking attendant was an ass. He wouldn’t let me stow my vespa in the hotel garage.” I replied sourly.

Andre twitched and let out a tired sigh as I walked past him. This was an old argument. This time of the month was stressful for everyone involved. Everyone’s temper got a little shorter the closer it got to the full moon. And as much as it sucked I, more often than not, had to be the cool head in this situation. 

One elevator ride to the penthouse suite later, I winced as I heard something that was probably worth more than all of my worldly possessions combined smash against the wall.

I hesitated before giving the door a sharp knock.

I had to fight the urge to jump back as the hardwood door was wrenched open and a familiar blonde shot me a molten glare.

Chloe Bourgeois. My client.

“Where have you been? I don’t like being kept waiting!” the blue eyed girl snarled.

“Sorry. I had some business that ran a few minutes longer than I expected.” I replied.

It’s true. The weekly ultimate Mecha Strike III tournament is serious business. And I have a title to uphold. And sometimes time gets away from me when I’m tearing my roommates limb from limb. We’re cutthroat like that.

“How utterly Ridiculous! Let’s get this over with!” the taller girl huffed.

I stepped out of the way and gave the blonde a courtly bow as she stomped past. 

The two of us walked down the hall and stepped back into the elevator. I pulled a small silver key and inserted it into a hidden slot under the call buttons. 

The elevator descended as the two of us stood in stony silence.

I was sure it rankled her something fierce. She was my former bully and I’ve had the…privilege (for lack of a better term) of knowing her since école. The two of us HATED each other. I was the baker’s daughter. She was the child of the soon to be mayor. And whenever we were in the same room, someone ended up worse off. On the first day we met I got my front baby teeth knocked down my throat and she got a black eye and a bloody nose (neither of us are sure who threw the first punch). The two of us were like a pair of rabid wolverines if we were left unattended.

DING!

The door opened without preamble, revealing a bare concrete room with cheap halogen lights along the ceiling and a set of heavy steel bars that cut the room in half.

“You’re suite!” I smirked, opening the cell door.

The blonde bared her teeth angrily at me as I shut the only entrance behind her.

Without another word, Chloe stripped off her ratty pink sweats, kicked off her cheap flip-flops and tossed the bundle of clothes to me as we waited the last minutes before nightfall in silence.

Chloe paced back and forth as I examined the ceiling.

“Sooooo, in an effort to try and cut through the awkward silence; is there anything you’d like to watch before the main event happens?” I asked innocently.

The blonde shot me a guarded look as she inched toward the cell door, “I’d ask for an episode of the Vampire Diaries, but you’d probably shank me on general principle. So, I’m willing to settle for Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood.”

“Weeb.” I snorted, cuing up the first episode.

We watched in semi companionable silence as the sun sank lower until it happened…

“HURK!” Chloe gagged, lurching backwards.

I stowed my phone and I leaped away from the cell as the Blonde’s transformation took hold. It wasn’t a pretty picture. Chloe collapsed into a ball of agonized misery as her body began to swell like an overfilled balloon, her leg bones audibly/repeatedly shattered and reformed, reversing the knee joint. A fine coat of light blonde fur crept over the girl’s body as her ears migrated to the top of her head and became triangular. I winced in sympathy as her face bulged out. Her nose merged with her mouth to form a rectangular snout as a long curly tail grew like a weed just below the small of her back. 

With the transformation complete, the now pony sized werewolf laid in a twitching heap on the floor of the cell. This was the point where I had to be on guard. Werewolf Chloe had two basic settings.

The first being semi normal. While I wouldn’t call this version intelligent by any means, she was at least smart enough to stay in one place and not try to escape. It also helped that ear scritches were this Chloe’s kryptonite.

The other version of her was the problem child. She was a feral beast that did not like being locked up, and anyone who tried to get in the way of her hunt for fresh prey was torn to pieces. I made the mistake of sticking my arm in the cell the first time I encountered her. I spent the next several hours wrestling the massive lycanthrope single handedly after she broke out of her cell (mostly because it took a week for the left one to grow back). 

As I waited for the werewolf to stumble to her feet, I watched with bated breath. I had specifically asked the mayor to reinforce the bars of the cell with something strong enough to hold his daughter. Ideally, a silver lined cell would have stopped Chloe cold. But the risk would have been too high that she would have hurt herself. So steel would have to do.

Chloe huffed and whined as she stumbled drunkenly to her feet. She looked around the cell and sniffed the air.

 _“Well, she’s not trying to bash the door down, so it looks like Feral Chloe has taken a back seat tonight…”_ I thought wearily as I prepared to wait the night out my summer math homework (which I would have finished several days earlier, if I hadn’t been distracted by a troll that had taken residence under the Lock Bridge). While I might be taking online classes, that does not mean I was exempt from the wonderful world of schoolwork.

I pulled my Algebra book out of my backpack and sat cross legged on the floor. I spared Chloe one final glance as I tried to puzzle out the mystery of quadratic equations. 

As the hours passed and I lost myself in the world of mathematics, the werewolf nudged her snout against the floor and sniffed the bars curiously.

I really should have paid attention as she paced back and forth, butting her head against the bars.

“Ok, so I think I’ve solved this 4x squared BS, so what the heck is the square root of Y…” I mumbled.

The blonde watched me curiously as I scribbled away on my scratch paper.

“Argh! Maybe it’s three? No that’s not right…” I grunted, crossing out over half-hour’s worth of work.

The blue-eyed werewolf let out a playful yip as she ran in a circle chasing her own tail.

CLANG!

We both froze as the lycanthrope slammed into the door of the cell, causing the entire structure to rattle wildly.

The blonde let out an animalistic snarl as I got cautiously to my feet. The pony sized wolf backed away from me until she was flush against the rear cell wall.

“Calm down, princess. I don’t know what set you off, but I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m just here to keep you in one…”

CLONG!

“YACK!”

The moment I got in front of the cell, Chloe threw her entire weight against the door and tore it off its hinges, dropping more than a hundred and fifty pounds of metal plus nearly a half ton of werewolf right on my head.

The werewolf scrambled off me, letting out a happy bark as she sauntered to the elevator. Chloe examined the array of buttons curiously as she hiked herself up and rested her forepaws against the wall, poking the panel with her sensitive snout.

CRRRNCH!

CLANG!

I let out an annoyed groan as I heaved the door off, lifting the entire thing above my head and hurling it to the side. It took only a matter of second for the inch long gash in my scalp to knit back together until not even a scar was left.

“Ok, I was hoping we’d be able to play nice tonight. Just you, me, and algebra. Then maybe we could bond over some Netflix and Chill. But that went, right out the window when you threw a cell door at me, didn’t it?” I growled angrily as my teeth grew into shark like fangs.

The werewolf narrowed its eyes and circled me, baring her teeth in a savage snarl.

Chloe let out a lupine screech as she lunged, slamming her entire weight into me, and nearly dropping me onto my back.

CRACK!

“YIPE!”

I gritted my teeth and drove my knee into her vulnerable underbelly before heaving her across the room.

Wolves were pack hunters. While a single wolf could bring down easier prey, numbers were necessary to handle something more dangerous.

I like to think I’d fit into the second category.

Chloe shook her head and gave me a scathing glare as she stumbled to her feet.

She bunched her legs and lunged, jaws ready to tear into my throat.

As I tried to swipe the bitch out of the air, she feinted and went low. My eyes widened in horror as she sank her fangs into my thigh and heaved.

I flew across the room and slammed into the call buttons with a crunch of shattered metal.

The doors sprang open as Chloe leaped over me and into the elevator with a happy doggy grin.

“Oh no you…” I growled as…

CLUNK!

The door closed in my face.

“Don’t do what you just did. D***n it! Outsmarted my something way lower than me on the proverbial food chain. The captain will never let me hear the end of this.” I groaned as the elevator began to ascend to the upper floors.

I gritted my teeth as my body dissolved into mist. I hated using this particular ability. It left me half blind and deaf. Most of the time it was only through dumb luck that I managed to get where I needed to go.

I flowed frantically around the elevator shaft until I figured out how to wrap around the central cable. It took me far longer than I would have liked to drift up the elevator shaft and out the rapidly closing door on the ground floor.

I barely managed to reform one of my arms to try to grab her back legs. I just missed latching onto the little bitch by about a hair.

Chloe bowled over her shell-shocked father as she leaped out into the warm Parisian night.

“W-what just happened?!” the portly politician squawked.

“She smashed though the cell. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get your daughter back before she sinks her teeth into someone.” I babbled as I ran after her as fast as my newly reformed legs could carry me.

“Come on, which way did she go?!” I groaned, looking for any sort of clue. The few people on the street had already either scattered or hid in the few still open buildings the moment the werewolf made her presence known.

Gritting my teeth, I ducked into a nearby alleyway. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Chloe had already gotten too big a head start, so finding her from the ground would be all but impossible. She had too many hidey holes to duck into, even against my enhances senses.

So that left hunting her down from the air.

The shadows seemed to come alive around me as they enveloped my body like a cocoon. Semi warm flesh gave way to feathers. Arms became wings. Legs became, well, smaller legs. My face was dominated by a wickedly hooked beak that was more than capable of tearing into flesh. In a matter of seconds, I had become my second favorite alternate form: A peregrine falcon. An airborne predator easily capable of spotting and divebombing its prey at almost two hundred miles per hour.

I took an awkward hop-skip forward as I spread my wings and booked it into the air as fast as my little birdy body was capable of.

I wheeled through the air as I desperately attempted to spot the fleeing werewolf. Every second she was free was an opportunity that she could bite someone. Chloe wasn’t in her right mind right now. Even though she was smarter than usual, she was still operating on instinct. And I didn’t think that kind of situation would end well for anybody. 

Best case scenario, Chloe’s cage would have two occupants next month. 

Worst case scenario…there’s very thorough cleanup crew that’s responsible for making sure the magical community of Paris isn’t exposed. And the last thing any of us wanted was Chloe being swept under the proverbial rug, never to be seen again.

Several minutes later, I narrowed my eyes as I spotted a shadowy figure leaping along the roof tops of the fourth Arrondissement.

 _“How did she even get onto the rooftops? It’s not like she can climb a ladder! Aw, screw it. I’m a bird, time to hunt like one.”_ I thought archly as I lined up with my target, tucked my wings, and dove at her like a f***ing bullet. 

SCHNIKT!

“YIPE!”

I extended my talons and sliced a meaty chunk out of the back of Chloe’s head, nearly tearing off one of her ears.

The werewolf whirled around as she tried to spot her attacker. But I had already ascended and was ready for another run.

 _“Pilot to bombardier, we are locked on target! I'm ready for another pass!”_ I thought gleefully.

I might have been enjoying this a little too much. 

Chloe whirled around at the last second, teeth bared and ready to snatch me out of the air and turn me into Peregrine nuggets.

I pulled out of the dive so quickly that I swore her teeth combed through the feathers on my belly.

The shadows wrapped around me as I tumbled out of the air and managed a semi dignified three-point landing.

“All right princess; enough is enough. I know you can understand me. Either you come back to the hotel, or I drag you back. At this point, I’m partial to either option.” I frowned.

The blonde werewolf regarded me cautiously before she took that one choice I never expected.

She turned and ran.

The werewolf whirled around and dashed across the rooftops as fast as her paws could carry her.

“Oh no you don’t! You are not getting away again!” I snarled, running after her.

The shadows enveloped me again as I started running on all fours. My new dire wolf body was as canine as Chloe (even though I was head and shoulders shorter than her, much to my chagrin). My coat was snow white and I was a respectable eight feet long from snout to tail.

The two of us bounded along the rooftops, Chloe just managing to keep out of my reach.

Without warning, the werewolf banked left, and I nearly skidded off the edge of the apartment complex.

The tips of my claws skittered along the ledge as I scrambled back.

 _“Sneaky little bitch!”_ I mentally growled, whirling around, booking it after her.

As I loped along, I kept my nose in the air as I followed the other wolf’s scent. 

The werewolf’s trail took me almost a block and a half away to the edge of the Arrondissement.

I sniffed the air and looked over the edge. My eyes narrowed at the sight of Chloe perched on a fire escape several stories below, her snout pressed against the window. The emergency exit was decorated with a myriad of potted plants. Even from a distance, I could tell that Chloe had taken an unusual amount of care not to disturb them. Her tail wagged eagerly as she stared into whatever room was on the other side of the window. 

“Huh. Maybe I was worried over nothing. It doesn’t look like she’s going to hurt anyone…” I mused thoughtfully as I returned to normal.

The werewolf stepped back; tail hiked in the air as she prepared to leap through the window.

“I hate it when the universe is tries to prove me wrong!” I blanched, leaping over the ledge towards her.

Chloe yipped happily as she backed to the edge. Suddenly, the fire escape rattled wildly as the world went sideways. I wrapped my arms around her waist and yanked the werewolf into the air. 

\------

The formerly sleeping girl was jerked awake by the sound of shattering pottery and clattering metal.

The redhead scrambled out of bed and dashed to the nearby window, only to gape in horror at the dozens of shattered pots that had previously contained her prized flowers.

“Son of a bitch…” Sabrina Raincomprix groaned as she wrenched the window open and grabbed an armful of plastic bags to dispose of the shredded remains of months of hard work.

\------

The two of us spiraled through the air as I locked my legs around her torso. Chloe kicked and wiggled madly as she tried to squirm out of my grip.

WHA-BANG!

The blonde’s body jerked and spasmed as her skull impacted the ground from four stories up.

I unwrapped my arms and legs and toppled over backwards, resting against a nearby fence.

 _“I’m gonna need the mother of all Bloody Mary’s after tonight, heavy on the AB negative…”_ I thought blearily.

I stumbled to my feet and stumped toward Chloe’s unconscious body. 

“Rrrrrrrrr” Chloe growled as the aforementioned unconscious body twitched.

I froze as the blue eyed werewolf stumbled drunkenly to her feet. 

It was that at moment I remembered two things.

Werewolves were stupidly resilient. Conventional weapons meant jack against a lycanthrope unless you went for serious overkill. 

Second; Chloe had a pretty hard head, even in human form. Doubly so during the full moon.

The werewolf glared hellfire at me as she bared her teeth in a savage snarl.

“RAWG!”

I let out a strangled scream of pain as Chloe dove and tackled me to the ground, her fangs sinking into my collarbone as her claws shredded through the meat of my belly.

I wheezed and sputtered as I tried to pry her off. But the werewolf had a death grip on my carotid artery, and I knew she wasn’t going to let go until I either passed out from blood loss or died.

I scrabbled for something, anything that could smack her hard enough to unlock the hold she had on my jugular.

My hand wrapped around something cold and metallic. I heaved it into the air and brought it down onto Chloe’s still healing skull.

CLONG!

“YIPE!”

The werewolf’s jaws sprang open like a Pez Dispenser as she collapsed in a twitching heap on the alley floor.

I could only blink in surprise at the shiny new aluminum baseball bat clutched in my one useable hand.

“I do not get paid enough for stuff like this.” I groaned as I tucked my improvised weapon into my belt loop and grimaced at the tattered remains of my favorite shirt (A vintage misfit skulls concert T that I had gotten for a steal on E-Bay from someone named Rock_’n_Roll_King_100).

I grabbed the now fully unconscious werewolf and hiked her over my shoulders. As I slumped out of the alley and into the thankfully deserted streets, the bite wounds and claw marks had already mostly healed. My chest was pretty much one giant scab and my shoulder was still a pile of shredded meat. But those issues would be sorted out with a bit of time and some of the good stuff.

\-------

The streets were thankfully deserted as I glared at the automatic doors of the Hotel Le Grand Paris, almost daring them to try and keep me out.

SHINK!

They opened without preamble.

 _“That’s what I thought.”_ I mentally crowed.

Needless to say, the mayor was beside himself as I lugged his concussed and unconscious daughter through the threshold.

“What happened!?” the overweight man sputtered, alternately cupping his daughters face in his hands and gaping at the shredded remains of my upper torso. 

“Chloe led me on guided tour of the rooftops of the fourth Arrondissement. She nearly turned me into kibble after I caught her trying to break into an apartment through the fourth story window. I was forced to defend myself.” I replied dryly.

“Will she be ok?” the politician whimpered.

“Just…give her a few hours of rest and she’ll be up, about, and in everyone’s faces come sunrise.” I answered wearily as I limped to the elevator. The next several seconds were spent in blissful silence as we descended to the underground cell.

Half the bars were torn off at the base and the remainder had been twisted into knots. The door was still torn off its hinges and rested at an angle against the far wall. 

Without many options, I hefted Chloe off my shoulders and set her down on the floor of what used to be her cage. 

While I wasn’t willing to admit it in front of a client, getting mauled took more out of me than I’d like. I was dead on my feet and ready to pass out at any moment.

I spared the unresponsive blonde and final glance before I slumped wearily in the corner.

I let out a sigh of relief that my backpack hadn’t been shredded in the melee, and by extension, the precious contents it contained.

Speaking of which, I pulled out a plastic pouch that held one of the most important substances known to my kind.

Red Ambrosia…otherwise known as Blood.

I sank my fangs into the spout, wrenched the stopper free, and took a nice looooooong sip. 

As the iron scented fluid slid down my throat. It was like my soul (or rather what was left of it) sang a holy chorus.

My shoulder finally started to knit together properly: tendons reconnected, bones were refused, and the shredded and much abused flesh and muscle regrew to the point where note even a scar remained.

My stomach and chest were much the same. The massive cuts and abrasions that Choe had oh so graciously unto gifted me faded into a flat stomach and pectorals.

My meal finished, I got back to the dirty business that was schoolwork. As much as I would have like to close my eyes and take a well-deserved rest, I still had a half-finished Algebra assignment to contend with. C’est la vie, I suppose.

It took only an hour for me to give up the ghost and drop off into a well deserved (if somewhat unrestful) sleep.

\----

I felt a shiver run down my spine as I skipped along behind my parents. Christmas was only a few short days away and the snow fluttered around me like a wintery cloak.

_“No! No! No! Anything by this! I don’t want to live through this again!”_

It was that moment that something caught my eye: a bright pink party dress with ruffled sleeves and a layered tulle skirt.

It was way out of my price range, but a girl can dream, can’t she?

_“Don’t stop, you little idiot!”_

I was so mesmerized by the gown that I didn’t notice two things. 

First being that my parents hadn’t realized I’d fallen behind.

_“Run! Please, for the love all that’s good and pure, run and don’t stop!”_

The second being the dark skinned hand that reached from the nearby alleyway and gripped my shoulder.

“EEK!” I squeaked as I was pulled into the shadows. 

My vision swam as an iron hard grip locked around my throat as a hand covered my mouth.

“I’m so sorry. But, my hunger comes first.” A softs spoken voice purred in my ear.

“MRPH!” I squealed, thrashing in the mystery person’s grip.

_“Please, stop! I was just a little girl, what did I do to deserve this?!”_

BANG!

I let out a whimper of pain as he cracked the back of my head into the unbreakable bricks.

“Better make this quick.” The shadowy person hissed.

The last thing I saw was the stranger’s vampiric fangs flashing in the dim light as he sank his teeth into my neck. 

The world went black.

That was the moment Marinette Dupain-Cheng died an ignoble death, and six months later the girl who would come to be known as Marianne was born.

\----

My eyes snapped open as I lurched to my feet, drenched in cold sweat. I half expected to feel my heart jackhammering in my chest. It took several second for me to realize that my torso was heartbreakingly still.

“Damn it. Even my own brain has it out for me…” I groaned weakly as I glanced into the shattered cell. Chloe was curled into a tight fetal position as her body set itself to right. Her arms and legs shrank as her paws became feet and hands. Her tail withered away to nothing. The shaggy carpet of blonde fur faded away into soft skin.

“YaggghhhhhhsssssSon of a bitch!!” the Mayor’s daughter howled as her higher brain functions snapped back into existence. The transition from beast to (wo)man was always disorienting, or so I’ve been told. 

I grabbed a soft terrycloth robe off a peg by the elevator and draped it over her trembling body.

“Good Morning, Chloe. Think you can walk, or do you need my help?” I asked flatly.

Under normal circumstances, I would have been more sympathetic, but after being mentally duct taped to the front row seat of my own siring, my wellspring of patience had run dry. 

Chloe hissed as she tried to climb to her feet, only for her legs to give out and leave the girl in a quivering heap on the cold hard floor.

“I got this…” my employer hissed.

“No you don’t. Get on.” I sighed, squatting with my back to her.

Chloe huffed darkly as she wrapped her arms around my neck and I locked my arm under the blonde’s quivering thighs.

It was a bit of a challenge since I was so much shorter. But we eventually piggybacked our way into the elevator and up to the girl’s suite. I ended up having to do the mother of all juggling acts to keep Chloe from face planting on the floor while trying to unlock the door. By the time I kneed the thing open, the blond was half asleep and drooling on what was left of my t-shirt.

I eventually managed to get her settled on the bed and was about to leave when the other girl whispered, “I didn’t hurt anyone, did I?”

“No. You smashed through the cage and knocked me for a loop. But I followed you every step of the way. You didn’t have the chance. The closest you came was when you almost broke into an apartment near Le Marais.” I shrugged.

The color drained form Chloe’s face, “Y-your sure that’s where it happened?”

“Pretty sure. Why?”

“That’s where my friend Sabrina lives. I had to cancel a spa day with her because I forgot to keep track of the moon.” The blonde gulped.

“Shit. I guess it makes a little more sense why you were so hellbent on getting there. It got a little dicey, but I’m pretty sure she didn’t even know you were at her window.” 

“Damn it. I hate this! What did I ever do to deserve turning into a monster?” Chloe scowled.

I’m ashamed to admit I had to bite my tongue. Hearing the same words I had mentally cried out only a short while before was almost more than I could take. I was tempted to mention the time she dumped paint in my hair during art class. The end results weren’t pretty. I came to school the next day with a shaved head because the stuff was so matted in that not a single strand of my luscious locks could be salvaged.

Chloe must have read my expression, “OUT!” the blonde snarled as I scurried out of the room.

\-----

Andre Bourgeois’s eye twitched as the person on the other end of the phone delivered… displeasing news.

“No! You listen to me! You promised me that your little alchemical concoction would tame the beast, not make it smarter!”

A beat.

“No! you listen to me, my daughter ended up breaking out of her cell because the compound you provided me didn’t do as advertised!”

The mayor let out an angry snarl as the person on the other end of the line delivered a blistering reply, “You do know what breach of contract is, don’t you? And I expect the payment I provided to be returned with interest.”

A curt retort.

“You don’t want to know what I’ll do if you cross me. Oh, what the hell, I’ll tell you anyway! Do you know how many spell casters live in Paris? Almost a quarter of the worlds population. And what would happen if I instituted a ban on magical exports to England? Especially if I made it known that it happened because your little cabal nearly got my daughter killed because you provided me with substandard products? Your client base would dry up and your entire family would be destitute.” 

Stony silence.

“I’m glad you understand. I’ll be expecting my money in a weeks’ time. And this will be the last time I contact you. If you try to strong arm me, or if I find any Grahm de Vanily in my city, there will be consequences.” The portly politician snapped, hanging up the phone without another word.

Chloe’s father slumped, realizing that the old adage was true: Heavy is the head that wears the crown…

Knock! Knock! Knock!

“Enter.” He said flatly.

I smiled weakly as I stepped into the Mayor’s office.

“Sir?”

“Your payment will be wired in full into your account. I’ll see you next month. Good day.” The hotel owner said.

“Um, Monsieur? There’s actually something more I’d like to discuss. If I’m going to keep Chloe safe during the full moon, I need better facilities and equipment. Le Grand Paris just isn’t going to cut it. She too strong to rely on conventional methods. Chloe’s already broken out of her cell twice. And there’s too many people around to deal with her safely if it happens again. I’d like to try searching for magical means to keep your daughter contained and someplace off site to do it.” I winced.

“So in other words you need time and money?” he replied wearily.

“Sorry. I wish it hadn’t come to this. But I’m doing this with Chloe’s safety in mind as well as everybody else’s.”

“Very well. I suppose I’d rather have my daughter away from here and safe during the full moon. And as a bonus, I won’t have to explain to my constituents why I have a dungeon built under the hotel…”

\------- 

An hour or so later…

It was nearly six in the morning when I stumbled onto the Liberty. The chaotic little houseboat wasn’t ideal, but he rent was cheap, and Captain Anarka Couffaine didn’t ask too many questions about where I disappeared to at odd hours.

The sound of gentle guitar music drew me in like a sirens song as I slumped into a chair at the kitchen counter.

“Good morning.” Luka smiled softly as he nudged a cup of sugar and espresso heavy ambrosia next to my nose.

“Thrnkx. Grtnybrkst?” I grumbled into the Formica.

I cracked open one eye as he nudged a plate of bacon and eggs next to my head.

“You have officially earned the title of my favorite Couffaine.” I smiled sleepily as I dug into the meal and sucked down the brown ambrosia.

“Any plan for today?” the teal haired teen asked.

“Lots and lots. Gotta charge my phone, get a change of clothes, and check in on Aurore; see if she’s made any progress. And Nadja’s been trying to get in touch with me for the last day. Pretty sure she wants her gown and probably needs me to do a job that I probably would have looked into already if I hadn’t been tied up with Chloe.”

“How’d that one go?”

“She broke out of her cell and nearly turned me into kibble. Not sure if this is some kind of weird werewolf thing, or if there’s something going on. On top of that, I have to find somewhere away from the hotel I can keep little miss Richie Bitch during the full moon and a magical way of keeping her there. The next month is going to suck.” I groaned. 

“If you need someone to do some footwork for you, I’m free for the summer.” The guitarist offered.

“You are a god among men. I’ll get back to you as soon as I get today sorted.” I sighed as I got to my feet.

“Up for a jam session before you go?” the elder of the two siblings asked innocently.

I froze. 

Damn that boy. He knew me too well. I really needed to unwind, and a nice bit of music would be just the thing. Technically I had the entire day. So…

“You’re on. Usual stakes?”

“Loser does the winner’s chores? You know it.”

\------

Several minutes (and the world’s quickest shower) later, I looked at the barely visible image of myself in the mirror, something wasn’t quite right.

Long black hair (plus the temple to tip pink streak I recently had dyed in)?

Check.

Big blue almond shaped eyes (from my maman’s nearly 100% Chinese branch of the tree)?

Check.

Full cupids bow lips (a gift from my father’s side of the family)?

Check.

The nose stud in my right nostril plus the industrial bar in my right ear? Which was 90% my choice. The remaining 10% was thanks to one wild night that pretty much cemented my status as a boat kid. 

Check.

Very male upper torso?

There it was.

“Girl day it is.” I shrugged, rewrapping the towel around my torso as the shadows enveloped me.

I shivered as my internal and external anatomy shifted around (and in some cases disappeared entirely) as my face changed from the angular cheekbones and more prominent nose to the softer features I had been born with. 

I grabbed a pleated peasant skirt and an off the shoulder blouse from my half of the closet as I tossed one of my discarded boots at the still sleeping lump under the covers of the other bed.

“Up and at ‘em, Juleka. Times’s a wasting and we need you to judge.” I chirped happily.

“Why? Just because you don’t need to sleep doesn’t mean you have to torture the rest of us!” the younger of the two siblings hissed. 

“Hey, if you want to sleep the day away and miss out on me and Luka going at it, as well as visiting Rose; That’s your business.” I smiled innocently.

The still sleepy goth froze as she contemplated the pros and cons of going back to bed vs. seeing her brother potentially get his ass kicked. And we can’t forget how visiting her crush factored into the decision.

“I long for the day you fall in love so I can hold it over your head.” the taller girl huffed petulantly, slipping out of bed.

“Not gonna happen.” I replied as I simultaneously juggled my violin case as I tried to finagle a pair of gladiator sandals onto my feet.

My roommate bolted down the remainder of my coffee in one shot as she grabbed the garment bag hanging from a hook by my bed side.

As the two of us made our way back into the galley, Luka smirked as he finished the last minute tuning of his favorite guitar.

I shot the taller boy a glare as I pulled one of my few luxuries out of the case: Crescent Rose.

She was as acoustic violin with a matte black finish, only broken by a pair of silver crescents framing the neck along the upper quarter, and a single blood red rose that I had hand varnished above the chin rest. 

She was my baby. My second passion, only beaten out by my dream of being a fashion designer.

It took only a few moments to finish tuning before I settled in, and we began to [play.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J2QdDbelmY)

Sweat began to bead along my forehead as I teased every note I could out of her strings.

Luka was in the same boat as I matched him note to note. 

He picked up the tempo.

I matched him.

I tried changing the pitch.

He was right there with me.

The two of us butted heads every second of the way until the final note dropped.

“Well?” I panted as we looked at Juleka expectantly.

The goth sipped her second cup of coffee silently as she looked form one of us to the other.

“It’s a tie.” She said simply.

“Really?” I groaned as Luka nodded knowingly.

“Eeeyup. Both of you kicked ass, plain and simple.” The taller girl shrugged.

I shook my head Two hundred concerts…Two hundred ties…I still couldn’t get the best of Luka. 

“I’ll get you next time.” I chuckled.

“You can try.” He chuckled as I grabbed the garment bag and made my way out of the ship and into still waking city.

Hi! My name is Marianne. 

I’m many things.

A seamstress.

A detective (though some would describe me as more of a mercenary).

A vampire.

And this is my story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for taking the time to read this. So feel free to leave a comment, constructive criticism is always welcome.


	2. A day at the Market

As I rode my vespa through the still waking city, my loyal steed vibrating softly underneath me, I tried to calm my racing thoughts.

The jam session had helped, but between my hopes that Aurore’s/my pet project had born some kind of fruit and whatever Nadja had in store for me, I was dreading a trip to the underground.

Don’t get me wrong, the Drow was one of my favorite people. And that’s not just because she saved me from living the rest of my immortal days on the streets, surviving off rats and whatever other small animals I could scrounge up. She gave me my life back and gave me a home when I couldn’t go back to mine (no matter how much I wanted too sometimes). 

Simply put, Nadja Chamack was simultaneously one of the sweetest and scariest people I know. She was the type of person who could crack the skull of a rampaging minotaur with one swing of the flat side of her broadsword, or offer that same person a kind word and a hand baked Macaron if they were willing to shut up and listen.

“Time will tell what I’ll be up to over the next few days.” I thought dryly.

With that cheerful though, I arrived at my destination: Place Charles de Gaulle, 75008.

The Arc De Triomphe. 

Also known to some as the secret entrance to the Penta-market; the underground city that housed three quarters of Paris’s less than human population.

With only a glance at the few early morning tourists that dotted the area (mostly to make sure that no one was paying me an overt amount of attention), I walked up to the massive monument and through a person sized hidden portal directly under the horse’s head on the leftmost relief.

The centuries old stone rippled like water around me as I stepped into the commercial district of the hidden city. 

The marketplace was easily several miles wide and made up of hundreds of different businesses, from stalls selling weapons and enchanted items, larger scale shops that sold magical scrolls and potions, and even restaurants and taverns that served everyone from giants to gnomes and everyone in between.

A massive branching canal ran along the main street that allowed more aquatic denizens to travel freely. This was a bit of a double edged sword though, because you got the occasional jackass who lobbed some of their garbage into the water without a second thought, only for the stuff to get tossed right back at them by a less than amused merfolk.

Speaking of the merfolks; the west side of the city was dominated by a colossal manmade harbor. Banks of warehouses lined the artificial lake. And hovering over the water were a half dozen cranes, each one capable of carrying (literal) tons of cargo at a time. At the edge of the lake was a hundred foot high pair of iron doors. These led to the tunnel out of the city, they were out main source of transporting goods to and from the surface. 

And in the center of the market was a fifty foot wide and absurdly deep spiraling staircase that led more than two miles underground to the residential district, where countless supernatural people called home.

Bordering the entrance to the upper level was a row of almost fifty booths staffed by dozens of stony-faced gargoyles. Each one wearing a bright red vest embossed with the symbol of the city (a crossed wand and sword over a firework like explosion) and a tiny little tasseled fez. Needless to say; my inner designer mourned for the poor souls who had to wear that monstrosity.

I made my way past the few early morning arrivals and stepped up to a booth.

The moment the rock headed construct inside the glass enclosure caught wind of me, he grinned like Christmas had come early.

“Morning Mari! What are you here for? Finally gonna settle the scored with Metalmane? Lord knows he’s wanted a piece of you for a while!” the pointy haired gargoyle smirked.

“No. And don’t call me Mari. I’m just here to pick up some supplies, maybe get a job from Nadja, and check up on a few projects. It’s strictly business today.” I huffed.

“Aw! You’re no fun. Me and a few of the other rockheads have a bet going on how long it’d take for you to take a bite out of the old Adrick!” my tormentor smirked.

CLUNK!

I jumped when a coffee mug flew out of one of the nearby booths and smacked the grinning gargoyle over the head.

“Don’t tell her that!” the next-door booth keeper hissed.

“Can you just let me in? I do have a delivery to make and I’d rather not keep the boss waiting.” I groaned, flashing my ID card.

“Fine. Gimme the password and I’ll let you through.” he smirked.

“Excuse me?” I frowned.

“Did I stutter? Give me the password and I’ll let you by.”

“Are we really doing this?” I glared at the muscular gargoyle.

His smirk spoke for itself.

“How about I could give you a third option; one that doesn’t involve me saying a dirty limerick.” I smiled sweetly.

“And what would that be?”

“How about you don’t make this delivery any later than it already is, and I don’t go in there and lodge my foot so far up your nonexistent ass that you’ll be tasting my toenail polish for the rest of your unnatural life?” I chirped, what little good mood I had built up now thoroughly spent.

CLUNK!

The steel shutter slammed down over the front of the booth as the turnstile whirred to life.

“That’s what I thought.” I nodded as I made my way in.

\------

My first stop of the day was about halfway through the market, past several taverns and more than a hundred stalls selling everything from exotic food (“DRAGON FRUIT! GET YOUR DRAGON FRUIT, RIGHT HERE!), spell components (“BAT GUANO! CAN’T CHUCK A FIREBALL WITHOUT FRESH BAT GUANO!”), and even enchanted items (FROST CUBES FOR SALE! YOU CAN WALK ACROSS THE SAHARA WIHTOUT BREAKING A SWEAT WITH ONE OF THESE!”)

My destination was a small out of the way shop. Most people wouldn’t give the place a second thought. But they didn’t know the owner like I did.

The exterior was a tiny stone building topped with a round wooden sign etched with bright blue cursive lettering that read The Norther Lights Emporium. Hovering over the words was a puffy looking cloud sprinkling  
multicolored rain.

‘DING-A-LING-DONG!’ The bell above the door chimed as I stepped through.

My nose twitched as the scent of half a dozen simmering cauldrons assaulted me. Manning each one was an identical girl with long blonde hair and brown eyes.

“Moring Marianne!” the clone nearest to me smiled tiredly.

“Morning, Aurore. Any of you know where…well… you are? I just wanted to check up on things and pick up a few supplies.” I asked.

“Oh, the prime Aurore’s in the back. Just follow the sound of shattering potion vials.” Another clone smirked.

“Ah, I forgot it’s experiment day. Better stay out of the blast zone…” I winced.

KA-BOOM!

The room jumped as a massive explosion rocked the entire building. Boxes of scrolls and other magical trinkets rained down on our heads as shelves dumped their contents on the floor. The clones collectively blanched as they steadied their cauldrons to keep things from getting even messier.

The other Aurores grumbled as they got back to brewing and shot me a not so subtle look of pity as I stepped behind the counter and into the back room.

To put it bluntly, it was a disaster area: The was a massive foot deep crater in the floor. Rank, acidic smoke wafted into thee air. There were over a rough cardboard dozen targets, each one with black hair, brown eyes, and devil horns sticking out of their scalps.

My eye twitched at the sight of pair of trouser clad legs sticking out from underneath a pile of crates.

I rolled my eyes and grimaced as I grabbed my business partner by her ankles and dragged her out from under the debris.

“Ow.” Aurore Boreal moaned, clutching her head.

“If this is how you impress potential investors, it’s a wonder you stayed open this long.” I pointed out teasingly.

“Hello to you too.” The blonde hissed as two clones helped her to her feet.

“What happened?”

“I was testing a new blast potion that was supposed to mimic the effects of a fireball spell. But I must have mixed it wrong. I got all the boom, but none of the heat. It didn’t help that I dropped the vial just as I was about to throw it...” The original Aurore grimaced.

Aurore was… something else. When she put her mind to it, she was one of the brilliant spellcasters I had ever met. She was capable of picking apart even the most complex spell with minimal effort. But on the other hand, she tended to be so fixated on her goal that she had a bad habit of letting certain things slide in the meantime; like basic safety.

Which might have been the reason she had such a hard time finding people to invest and help her move into a larger store, as opposed to the half collapsed shed she was renting now.

“Do you feel up to talking shop? I can come back later if you’re in the middle of something.” I asked, eyeing the blast zone as one of the clones grabbed a shovel and bucket of dirt while the other cast a spell that wafted the fumes out a nearby window.

“No, I’m fine…I’m fiiiiine. Just a little concussion and maybe a teeny bit of tinnitus. I’ll be ok in a few minutes.” The witch smiled grimly. 

“If you say so.” I muttered as I watched the clones wave their wands, causing the shovel to come to life and scoop dirt into the hole.

“So, how can this humble store owner help you today?” the blonde asked.

“I came to pick up my usual took kit. Scrolls of darkness, message orbs, healing potions, mage hand stones, and the amulet of undetectability and the headband of language I had on backorder. Oh, and can you throw in a scroll for that ice wall spell you told me about? It sounds like it could come in handy.” 

“Done and done!” the blonde smiled as her clones combed the shelves and stacked my purchases in neat piles.

“And, while I know you’re busy, I have a request for another long term job. Can’t give you the details. But I need wards and spells that can contain (and if necessary, pacify) a werewolf.

The Aurores froze, “And what do you need magic like THAT for?” 

“Again, client confidentiality. But I have a month to set up. So do you think you can come up with something?” I asked.

Aurore bit her lip, “I could. But I’m not the best person for the job. I specialize in offensive spells, potions, and restoratives. Wards…are not something I’m good at. I could cobble something together, but I can’t guarantee what kind of quality you’ll get. Not without time to study the subject.” The witch grimaced.

“Ok, I understand. Can you recommend someone?”

“Mirphel Mirphet.” Aurore mumbled.

“Could you repeat that?”

“I said Murphille Murphquet.” The witch grimaced.

I rubbed the bridge of my nose, “Please, one more time, in French please?”

“I said Mireille Caquet! When it comes to wards and defensive spells, she’s second to none.” My business partner bit out.

I was genuinely surprised. Mireille and Aurore had a bit of a history. I’m not sure what happened, but the two of them used to be best friends. Then they had an irrevocable split that left them at each other’s throats. These days, the best way to describe them was like a lesser version of Chloe and me.

“Thank you for the recommendation. I know this doesn’t come lightly. I appreciate it. Oh, and one more thing: I hoped had an update on our…project.” I smiled.

The Aurore clones around us froze. Not a good sign.

“I’ve made…some progress?” the witch winced.

“Define…some progress.” I sighed.

“I’ve figure out how to stop weaker vampires from combusting in sunlight for two seconds?”

“That’s something I suppose.” I grimaced.

“Sorry but I can’t exactly be seen researching vampirism. It’s bad enough I managed to stumble on a way to stop weaker ones from burning, even by a few seconds. I have to do this on the sly. And that means these things take time.” 

“I understand. I really do.”

“You’re disappointed.”

“Nononono…maybe a little? I understand these things take time.”

And therein lies the problem. I have all time in the world. But the people I care about don’t.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’ll figure things out.” I smiled sadly.

With those encouraging words, I handed the blonde a small wad of euros as I tucked the potion vials and scrolls into the specialized compartments in my messenger bag and placed the enchanted amulet around my neck.

One of the clones gave me an encouraging grin as I turned around and walked away.

“Wait a second!”

I froze as one of the Aurores grabbed the handle sticking out of my bag and pulled the makeshift weapon free.

“Where did you get this?” the prime Aurore asked, a maniacal gleam in her eyes.

“Um. I pulled it out of a trash can. I got in the middle of a scuffle and needed something to defend myself. And this was the best thing on hand.”

“Do you have any idea what this is?” 

“A bat? I didn’t know you were a baseball fan.” I shrugged.

“It’s not just a bat! This was the beginning of a new branch of magic! I etched this bat with prototype runes that would allow a person to recall a weapon from anywhere. Imagine it: A gun with unlimited bullets: instantly recalled into the clip! A sword, axe, or spear that can appear in your hands no matter the obstacle. I was going to test this out, but the object I branded the rune onto got stolen when my back was turned.” The blonde giggled happily, waving the bat around and nearly braining one of her clones. 

“That’s impressive.” I gaped.

“Tell you what. Let me have this and when I finish this project; I’ll tie the bat to you free of charge. You’ll be able to call on it from just about anywhere.”

“You, my friend, have a deal!” I smiled as I stepped out of the shop.

\---

When I rounded the corner a half hour later, my eyes widened in surprise. 

The store in front of me was a study in contrast. It was easily five times the size of Aurore’s tiny hut. Attached to the roof was a massive neon sign, proclaiming the store as Mireille’s Miracles, and twinkling below that was a brightly glowing cauldron with multi-colored sparks raining in every direction. 

“Well, I’m not sure if I’m impressed or offended.” I mused. While I was sure the place had plenty of substance, my inner designer was more than a little insulted at the sheer overpowering flashiness. This place looked like the love child of a Las Vegas casino. 

I shook my head and walked through the massive oak doors.

BONG!

I flinched as a massive brass bell rang right above my head and left my skull ringing.

“Hello tinnitus my old friend, I hoped not to hear from you again.” I groaned, clutching my ears.

“Welcome, to Mireille’s Miracles! How can I help you?” the darkhaired store owner smiled.

“A friend of mine recommended you as a ward expert. I have a peculiar request. And I’d like to make it clear that this must be kept in confidence.” I said. 

“Oh! How interesting, tell me more!” the witch chortled.

I took a deep breath, “Simply put, I need a ward that’s strong enough to keep a werewolf in one place. And nonlethally pacify her if I have to. And I need it before the next full moon.” 

“Well, well, well, now isn’t that interesting! I don’t suppose you’d be willing to tell me who’s turning furry three nights a month? I’d be willing to add a hefty discount: I LOVE a juicy bit of gossip!” the dark haired girl grinned.

“No. Now name your price.” 

“Tch. You’re no fun. Fine. For time spent, plus parts and labor…I’d say a good quality ward scroll will cost you about…five thousand euros a pop.” She replied flatly.

I nearly choked on my tongue. That was more than I made in a month! Even if the mayor was paying the bill, I wasn’t about to ask for that much for a single ward. Chloe’s dad would drop dead from a heart attack.

“Ok, that’s highway robbery, pure and simple. If you’re gonna overcharge me by that much, I’ll be taking my business elsewhere.” I snapped, whirling on my heels as I stalked away. 

The girl’s eyes lit up in panic, “NO! Wait I’m sorry!”

I kept walking.

“A dozen wards for one thousand!” She blurted.

I froze.

“I’ll pay the three for the bundle. And if they prove effective, I’ll be picking them up on the regular.” I sighed.

“Thank you, and sorry about before. I got caught up in…trying to look business savvy that I got in over my head.” The witch grimaced.

“Duly noted. I’ll see you when you have the product ready.” I nodded as I walked out the door and tried to ignore the obnoxious bell ringing in my ears.

\--- 

As I made my way back to the main drag, I tried not to focus on the less than stellar news I received only a short while before. My grip on the garment bag tightened as I walked through the marketplace toward the wide staircase to the residential district below.

 _“Come on girl, it’s not a big deal. She’s making progress. It’s only been a year. The fact that Aurore figured how to stop vampires from burning is a step forward. You just have to be patient. Keep it together! You can’t afford to fall apart now.”_ I thought bitterly.

I paused at one of the fruit sellers and tossed the diminutive goblin a euro. I picked up the brightest apple out of the pile and took a bite.

“Well, well, well? If it isn’t Nadja’s pet vampire? Finally decided to slum with the common folk?” A familiar voice sneered.

Adrick Metalmane: professional asshole.

The last time our paths crossed was about six months ago. Someone (three guesses who, and the first two don’t count) had started selling ale laced with cannabis that got a lot magic and mundane people very sick. I ended up as part of the group that was hired to track the source and shut it down.

Adrick and his crew got their collective hineys handed to them. And I ended up with a new entry on the list of people who really didn’t like me.

“I’m just here to make a delivery. I’d really rather not have to explain how my boss’s new dress got damaged. So, go back to whatever hole you crawled out of and leave me alone.” I glared.

“Fankly my dear, I don’t give a damn what you want. You owe me for the still you busted up. I was gonna turn a tidy profit until ye stuck yer nose into my business.” He spat.

“Your business was completely asinine. We did you a favor stopping your little underground brewery before someone died. And a few months in the stockade was a small price to pay.”

“That’s your opinion. I have mine. And it’s that you’re gonna pay me back a pound of flesh for what you did.”

“You sound like a broken record. We’re done here.” I fired back flatly, walking past him.

“Yes, we are. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure that I can ask a certain pair of bakers about paying me back. Maybe they’ll give me what I want. And if they refuse…” he trailed off, smirking.

I froze.

My thoughts became a broken mess as I started to hyperventilate. 

_“No.”_

He threatened my parents.

**_“No!”_ **

I gritted my teeth as the shadows around me started to writhe and coat me like a second skin.

**_“No!”_ **

All I could feel was an all-consuming rage as I started to change. A shaggy carpet of dark orange fur crept over my body as my limbs elongated and my muscles grew to an absurd size.

**_“He threatened Maman and Papa!”_ **

One word consumed my thoughts.

**_“KILL!”_ **

“All right. That’s enough of that.” A familiar voice chuckled the tableau of violence was and shattered.

I flinched as a hand rested on my shoulders. I glanced up and looked into the familiar crimson eyes of the captain of the city guard: A purple skinned half demon simply known as Tealeaf. He had showed up ten years ago and made a name for himself as a capable fighter, a smooth negotiator, and a deft hand at a game of cards.

“Adrick, Leave the girl alone. One more word and It’s back in the cell.” The ram horned humanoid snorted, palming the hilt of one of his twin swords. 

“Aw, feck, all y’all! Yer not worth my time.” The professional asshole spat, stomping away.

“And as for you…” the half demon trailed off, looking at me sternly.

I refuse to admit that I flinched, readying myself for the upcoming rebuke.

“You have someplace you need to be. So move it kiddo. And don’t worry about your parents. Metalmane’s all bark and no bite. If he goes anywhere near your folk’s bakery, there’ll be hell to pay.” The purple skinned man smiled sadly, patting me on the head.

I sniffed as I wiped away a tear with my now fully human hands.

“Thanks.” I whispered.

\----

I kept my head down as I made my way down the massive spiral staircase. The crowd had swelled to the point where I was just one more person in the throng.

After several minutes, I finally reached the bottom. And the sight that greeted me never failed to take my breath away.

It was a massive, horizon spanning jawline. Each building sized tooth led into an expanse of bone that moved off into the distance beyond my field of vision. Archeologists had tried to determine the exact size of the skull, but no matter how far they dug, they just kept finding more dirt. Miles of earth had been excavated with no end in sight. 

There’s a reason this part of the Penta-market had been given the title of Hyperion Keep.

From what I was able to hear from the old guard who had been around when the city was founded a thousand years ago (give or take a century), it had taken nearly two years just to pry one of the teeth free to make a way for everyone to come and go.

I nodded at one of the guards clustered around the gap tooth gate built into the jawline.

“Any of you mind sending word ahead to the boss? I know she’s been waiting for this.” I said to the group of watchmen stationed outside the gate as I held up the garment bag.

“Ja, Frauline. Just a moment.” The lone human of the group said as he snapped his fingers.

One whispered incantation later, a spark of energy vanished into the air.

“Ze chancellor says; ‘Tell ze little so and so I’ve been waiting almost two weeks for this! She’s lucky she’s so good at what she does.’ So I suppose she’s expecting you.” The redheaded wizard snorted dryly.

“Well you can tell her that you can’t rush quality!” I sniffed, passing him a fresh croissant that I had baked last night before the Chloe debacle.

“Danke schön. And I’m not suicidal.” He nodded gratefully, taking a bite out of the still warm pastry.

The epoch old iron gates opened with a tooth rattling creak. 

As I stepped through, my eyes took in the stacks of buildings that vanished into the distance. The outer edge of the city was dominated by what was informally known as tent town. Hundreds and hundreds of ramshackle cabins littered the landscape. Beyond that were the apartment complexes and few single-family homes. Those tended to get passed from generation to generation since space was an issue at times. Beyond those were the higher end homes: Mansions and townhouses that catered to the city’s older/richer denizens. At the center of the city was the building informally known as The Kingdom: a massive mansion nestled in a colossal cavern roughly the size of the Eifel Tower. To be more specific, it was a two story stronghold, the outer balconies were lined with columns carved from the long extracted tooth. Clock towers decorated the eastern and western sides of the building. And the entire structure was circled by a twenty-foot-tall wrought iron fence that practically glowed with the strongest protective wards a dozen wizards could conceive.  


A pair of lightly armored, green skinned orcs eyed me as I stepped up to the mansion gate.

“Special delivery!” I chirped, holding up the garment bag.

“Stupid Humie clothes. Why do they wear so much?” one of the guards mumbled as they stepped aside.

“Cause they’re soft and squishy. They need all the help they can get.” The other chortled as I walked in.

“And it’s also because we have a thing against our private parts being on display 24/7.” I fired back as the gates closed behind me.

As I walked up the front steps, the front doors (a massive pair of carved oak slabs that were easily three time my size) opened of their own accord.

“It’s about time you got here!” Nadja snorted dryly the moment I entered the foyer.

She was a fairly tall woman (although most people were tall compared to me), with dusky grey skin, bright red hair, and copper eyes. She had a simple looking broadsword strapped to her back.

“Well, show me! I’ve been waiting ages for this!” the leader of the Paris’s supernatural population smiled like a kid at Christmas.

Grinning eagerly, I unzipped the bag and whipped out what was (at the moment) my magnum opus.

The gown was an off the shoulder, A line with an asymmetrical tulle shirt. The entire piece was made of a lavender silk. And the sleeves were loose and flowy.

“I Love it! I can’t even begin to imagine how you brought this dress into existence!” the drow gasped.

“Time and effort. It came into existence because of time and effort. Now go and try it on!” I nodded, shooing my boss back up the stairs.

“Mama?” a familiar voice muttered. 

The moment the door to Nadja’s bedroom closed, her daughter stumbled sleepily into the hall. Manon was four feet of toddler sized trouble: from her chubby cheeks and buck teeth to the disconcerting arachnid lower half of her body. Eight legs, and a bulbous cephalothorax topped with a very disconcerting red hourglass.

“Where’s mama?” the sleepy little girl asked.

“Oh, she’s trying on the new dress she commissioned. She gonna be a few minutes. So in the mean time…” I trailed off, reaching into my messenger back and pulled out a tiny little brown bat plushy.

The now awake Manon let out a happy squeal as she clambered along the walls. It took her less than five second to go from the second floor down to ground level.

“GIMMIE! GIMMIE! GIMMIE!” the little girl gasped.

“What’s the magic word?” I prompted, holding it out of her reach.

The drider sputtered angrily. For a split second, I was sure that she was about to throw the mother of all temper tantrums.

“Can I have the doll please?” The little girl pouted, her eyes tearing up as her bottom lip wobbled for maximum cuteness.

Manon Chamack used false tears: its super effective! 

I shook my head and passed her the plushie.

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” the half spider giggled, wrapping her arms around my legs.

“Your welcome, kid. Now, your maman will be out in a second. And she’ll have a bit of a show for you.” I smirked. 

I smiled sadly as the little girl ran around the room, flapping the bat’s fuzzy wings with her hands as she made airplane noises.

Kids should really be allowed to be kids, no matter the species.

“Well, what do you think?” My boss smirked as she stepped out of her room.

I whistled appreciatively as Manon’s eyes grew to the size of saucers.

“Mama’s so pretty!” the little girl gasped.

“Thank you. This will make next council meeting go a lot smoother. This dress will guarantee every last eye will be on me.” The Drow smirked. 

“You’re very welcome.” I bowed.

“You’ll be paid in full. And rest assured, I’ll be including a generous bonus for your time and effort.” 

“Much appreciated.” 

“Now, Manon, go get your glamour ready. You’ll have to leave for school in an hour.” The little girl’s mother prompted, shooing her daughter away.

“Private chat time?” I asked rhetorically.

The dark elf nodded, as he led me up the stairs and to a nearby balcony. From her stance, I could tell the seamless transformation from doting mother to leader of the Parisian magical community. 

“I have a very important job for you. One of my agents stationed in Landes de Gascogne missed his regular check in. Normally this wouldn’t be that big an issue. But considering he’s been stationed there for nearly forty years and, he hasn’t missed a report once, and even I don’t know what he’s looking after, I’d rather not take any chances.” The Drow grimaced.

“So, head up to the national park and check on your man. Anything I should be on the lookout for?” I asked.

“Maybe, maybe not. I don’t know what’s up there. My father’s notes tended to be vague at best about what he had people looking after. And most of them were under strict orders (including possible magic compulsion) not to answer to anyone but him. The old bastard handed me the keys to the kingdom when he left and didn’t tell me what half of them went to.” The copper eyed woman snorted sourly. 

I stayed silent. This was an old issue. The city’s former ruler (an ancient platinum dragon who had been nesting here when the city was founded) had vanished twenty years ago and left his adopted daughter in charge. The only proof that he had gone willingly into the night was a note that said ‘Left to be a star. Be back later!’

Needless to say; it was a touchy subject.

“So, can I expect any backup, or is this strictly solo?” I asked.

“As a matter of fact, yes. I recently hired a mercenary from Japan. She’s a kitsune from an old family, and she should arrive in Paris in about a day. I can give her directions to the houseboat so you both can coordinate before you leave. I’ve already arranged the bus tickets to take you to the drop off, so call me as soon as you two arrive at his cabin.”

“Understood.”

\-----

A day later…

SNAP!

HISS!

“ARGH!” I yelped as the last of the healing potions vanished.

I was sitting on the bed wearing only a pair of jeans. Juleka was seated next to me feeding my recent purchases into the glowing mass of lights that extended from my shoulder.

I suppose an explanation is in order.

About a year prior I had an intricate climbing ivy etched into my right arm. I spent a bundle to have it converted (thank you Aurore) into a makeshift storage system. Each leaf on the vine was able to hold a decent amount of weight (about twenty pounds of small items a piece or one big one).

The system wasn’t perfect though. Opening up enough leaves to store everything at once took concentration and stamina, combined that with the muscle spasms from keeping the damn thing open for too long and the trouble I had to go through to keep it organized (so I didn’t pull the wrong thing out of the wrong leaf at the wrong time) and the whole set up was a pain in the ass.

The upside being that only I was able to access it. My blood was the key. A little smear and anything inside the now red painted leaf came out into my hand…more or less.

The less said about the time I clocked myself upside the head with a pair of boots, the better.

I still don’t know how those steel toed monstrosities got in there.

“All right, I just have to put the scroll away and we’re good.” The goth said as she held the rolled-up parchment over the final miniature glowing portal.

SNAP!

HISS

“SONOVA…” I snarled as the scroll of darkness vanished.

My hand spasmed and twitched madly as the fire that lit my nerve endings settled into glowing embers.

“You gonna be Ok?” my roommate asked.

“I’ll be fine in a little bit. Just give me a little time to heal any lingering damage.” I grunted, flopping onto my back. 

“So, how long will you be gone?” Luka asked. He was sitting across from us, tuning his guitar.

“It could be a day or two. Maybe longer. Depends on if the guy watching the woods is alive or not. If he’s Ok, we get an explanation as to why he decided to skip out on a status report and make our way back home. If he’s not, I figure out what happened and call for backup if necessary.” I shrugged as the lingering burns on the non inked part my arm faded into unblemished skin.

“That is so cool!” the goth enthused.

“Yeah, and all it takes is being attacked in a dark alley, slow cooking for half a year in the cold hard ground, mix in a boat load of trauma after waking up in a coffin, and BAM! Instant vampire.” I rolled my eyes.

The Goth’s expression softened as she patted me on the shoulder and padded out of the room.

Luka played a few chords as we sat in companionable not so quiet.

I got to my knees and grabbed Crescent rose from the broken amp that made up my bedside table. I absently twiddled the pegs as I ran the bow along the strings. Not really playing, but just being. 

That atmosphere was broken when Juleka once again poked her head into our shared room.

“Um, Marianne, I think you ought to see this.” The goth said hesitantly. Her lip was twitching with barely suppressed laughter that set me on edge.

I climbed to my feet and followed behind until we reached the gangplank. The sight that greeted me made face palm.

Standing at the edge of the dock was a girl. 

She was wearing a (for lack of a better term) school girl uniform: A white blazer over black dress shirt paired with a pleated shirt, black stocking and red high tops.

Belted on her hip were two swords; a Japanese Nodachi and (from my limited perspective) a fencing saber.

“Hello! My name is Kagami Tsurugi, and I am to be your bodyguard.” The mystery girl said shortly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for taking the time to read this. So feel free to leave a comment, constructive criticism is always welcome.


	3. Hunter and Hunted; Act I

Did you know that the average ride from Paris to Landes de Gascogne averages about four to five hours depending on traffic? I didn’t know that either until today.

I let out a mental cheer we arrived. I wasn’t going to say it out loud, But I was more than a little tired of sitting next to someone who was more stone faced than some of the Gargoyles I knew.

I jolted as Kagami shoved past me and walked into the woods.

“Come. We have a job to do.” She said flatly.

“You could at least let me pop my back first. I might be immortal, but I’m not made of stone…” I muttered, hiking the straps on my pack as I followed behind.

“According to Nadja, we’ll find the cabin about a day and a half’s walk from here. It’s at the junction of the Grand Leyre and the petite Leyre about half way through the forest.”

“I see. I suppose we are in for a long hike then.” My traveling companion murmured.

“Maybe, maybe not.” I smirked as I glanced behind me. We were out of sight of the rest of the tourists.

“Why are you stopping?”

“Because I feel like getting in touch with my wild side.” I smirked as I let my pack drop to the ground.

“What are you…” the dark haired girl sputtered only to trail off as the shadows sprang up around me and enveloped me like a second skin.

When the darkness faded, the girl was gone. In my place was a wolf.

I let out a happy yip as I snatched up my discarded pack and bolted deeper into the underbrush.

“Wait! I…argh!” the Japanese girl sputtered as she bolted after me.

 _“Keep up, if you can!” I mentally crowed._

The pines blurred past me as my paws pounded the dirt. The smell of the forest gave me a heady rush that no drug could ever hope to match. 

I ran and ran and ran until my barrel like chest was heaving and my tongue lolled happily ‘round my chin.

I might or might not have spent a few minutes rolling around in the leaves and just enjoying the wonderful sensation of being a dog in the woods.

If my mental math was correct, I probably covered almost forty miles in the span of an hour.

I glanced behind me and did a double take.

My ‘bodyguard’ was nowhere to be found.

I snapped back to normal and looked around.

“Kagami?” I yelled.

No answer.

“Oops?”

\----

The campfire crackled and popped merrily as I dabbed antiseptic onto the myriad of cuts that dotted my traveling companions arms and legs. It had taken nearly two hours for the Japanese girl to catch up with me, covered in dirt (from tripping into a ditch), her skirt and blazer reduced to scraps shredded cloth (from snagging on countless tree branches), and completely done with this assignment (from everything else).

“I’m sorry?” I winced as I wrapped a deep cut on her thigh.

Kagami’s stony silence spoke for itself.

“You just sit here and rest. I’ll get dinner ready.” I offered.

The kitsune barely spared me a glance as she wrapped herself in her bedroll and turned her back to me.

And so, as the sun set, I busied myself chopping, boiling, and mixing until the delectable spicy aroma drew my traveling companion from her angry stupor.

Wordlessly, I offered Kagami a plate of conciliatory curry.

“Thank you.” She replied.

The two of us sat in semi-companionable silence as we ate and watched the fire dance.

“Do you know what lives in these woods. Should I expect to encounter anyone hostile.”

“Not to my knowledge. As far as I know, the only things that lives here are squirrels and deer.” I shrugged.

“I see.” She muttered, almost sounding disappointed.

Once again, the awkward silence reigned.

“So…” I ventured.

“If you have something to say, please say it. I dislike hesitation. It is a sign of weakness.” 

“Out of morbid curiosity, why didn’t you transform?”

“Excuse me?”

“Why didn’t you transform into a fox? You would have been able to keep up with me easily.”

Kagami froze, a multitude of expressions ghosting across her face, starting with shock, then anger, next was shame, finally resignation.

“Good night.” The kitsune said flatly, tucking herself back into her bedroll.

So much for not hesitating.

\-----

Hours later…

I stared into the fire, lulled into a sleepy trance by the crackling logs and my own slowing thoughts.

Why was my traveling companion being so evasive?

What was the secret to curing vampirism?

Could I master that new DLC character for UMS 3 that dropped last week?

Would I ever be able to make a perfect Pan Au Chocolate?

What shoes would go with that silk dress I was working on? Maybe my espadrille wedges I bought last month or my black ballet flats?

What was that horrible smell?

My head jerked up just as I was about to nod off. It was a god-awful combination of rotting garbage, raw sewage, and essence of skunk. 

That was when I heard them.

Shuffling footsteps. Lots of them.

I dove onto Kagami and covered her mouth.

The girl flailed and tried to slap me away.

“Someone’s coming! Get in the bushes! I’ll douse the fire!” I hissed.

The kitsune grabbed her swords and scrambled into the underbrush as I uncapped my canteen and poured the water out over the flames.

As the darkness enveloped me, I was cocooned in shadows. I shrank down, limbs sprouting, multiple eyes came into existence where no eyes had been before. My human body had shrunk down into something smaller than my hand, something completely alien: a tarantula.

I scuttled along the forest floor and scrabbled up a nearby tree.

As I disappeared into the low branches, that was when I saw them.

The creatures were covered in tattered rags and bits of corroded armor. They had crude, rusted weapons on hand: swords, axes, clubs, anything that could crush or slice. But what struck me was a simple, inescapable fact.

They weren’t alive.

The creatures in front of me were little better than rotten corpses; skeletons with a few hanging scraps of meat clinging to their nonexistent carcasses.

There were at least six of them, with more probably waiting in the wings.

“A vera? (Not here?)” one of the undead snapped.

“Skammt! (Not far!)” another of the creatures hissed.

“Driefa! (Scatter)” the biggest one grunted, shoving lanterns into the bony hands of the smaller undead as they traipsed into the bushes to search.

I hopped off the branch and scrambled under greenery until I encountered warm flesh.

The darkness writhed around me as I turned back into my normal self.

I slapped my hand over the kitsune’s mouth just as she was about to let out a screech of shock.

 _“It’s me. There are six of them. There are probably more waiting. We need to move.”_ I whispered.

At that moment, I caught onto something I had missed in the scuffle: Kagami was shaking.

 _“We’ll get out of this. Just give me a second.”_ I said softly.

The girl let out a tiny guttural whimper as I stuck my thumb into my mouth and bit down.

I smeared a drop of blood onto my tattoo. One of the leaves glowed dimly and disgorged a scroll.

“Hverju þetta sætti? (What was that?)” the big one hissed, stomping toward us. 

I unfurled the scroll and lobbed it at them.

The roll of parchment spewed what could only be described as an impenetrable cloud of darkness. And from the screeches of shock and pain; the zombies were stumbling over each other in an attempt to grab us.

I grabbed Kagami’s hand and booked it. The two of us tore across the field, darting between the walking corpses.

As we burst out of the cloud, I fell to all fours and turned into a wolf, Kagami clambering onto my back.

“TAUFR! (Chase them!)” the head zombie howled as he clattered out of the void.

I didn’t give them a chance. The two of us beat a hasty retreat, darting though the bushes and out of sight as fast as we could.

I ran for what felt like hours, my traveling companion clinging to my back like her life depended on it.

Finally, after running for miles, I stopped and allowed the adrenaline that had been fueling me to peter off, and exhaustion I had been ignoring up until now to take hold.

I popped back into my normal self and fell to knees, barely able to stand.

“What…was that?!” the Japanese girl sputtered.

“Don’t know…they were looking for us…need to rest…” I wheezed.

Kagami squatted next to me and slung my arm over her shoulder.

“You carried me, so allow me to carry you.” She said softly as we limped along.

\----

And so it went, the two of us hobbled along for the next day and a half along the wooded path, no clothes, and all our food and supplies (that weren’t sealed in my tattoo) were back at camp, under undead armed guard.

As I took a long deserved nap in the depths of the cave we had claimed for a brief resting spot, Kagami knelt at the entrance, her legs tucked under her as she poured a generous dollop of oil over a scrap of cloth (that she had torn from the increasingly ragged edge of her pajamas) and set about polishing her sword.

 _“I will not hesitate. I will not let my fear control me. I am a Tsurugi, and we know only victory…”_ The Japanese girl repeated for what seemed like the millionth time.

CRACK!

The kitsune’s head snapped up as she glared into the bushes.

“I know you are there. While I cannot tell how many of you there are, you had best leave before I end each and every one of you.” The dark haired girl scowled.

WHOOSH!

A throwing ax burst out of the brush and flew at the girls head.

Kagami lashed out with her sword and batted the ax aside, sending the rusted blade careening into the woods.

“RAAUUUUUGGGH!” With an unintelligible howl, the first undead leaped at her with a half rusted broadsword

“Humph. Pathetic.” The fox girl sniffed as she almost contemptuously stepped aside, stabbing the tip of her sword into the creature’s unoccupied eye socket. The ragged heap of bones let out a squeal of shock as she jerked her sword to the side and ripped the creature’s skull from its neck in one swift pull.

With a flick of the wrist, the undead’s now detached skull went sailing into the greenery as the now headless body stumbled blindly after it.

Two more rushed her from either side. The girl gritted her teeth and let out a yell as she leaped and lashed out, bicycle kicking the undead behind her right in the jaw. The revenant stumbled back, the lower half of it’s face hanging at a thread of half decayed sinew.

The second created out a gleeful cackle as it raised it’s battle ax to sink into the girl’s torso.

Kagami’s eyes widened in alarm as she grabbed the nearest thing on hand and heaved it at the ax wielding undead.

That thing happened to be the ankles of the still dizzy undead she had just kicked.

The kitsune hurled the shocked zombie off its feet and slammed it into the other one with an explosion of cloth and bone.

The Japanese girl could only blink owlishly at the still wiggling feet and shins clutched in her hands that were all that was left of her improvised bludgeon. 

“Well, are there any more of you?” the fencer frowned, casting the disembodied limbs aside.

“WAUUUUUUGH!”

“GRAAAAAAAH!”

“YAAAAAAHHH!

The Japanese girl sighed as three more skeletons leaped out of the bushes and ran at her, weapons raised.

Kagami dashed at the undead, hand on the hilt of her nodachi.

The first skeleton jerked as Kagami stabbed the tip of her blade into the underside of the undead’s chin. She twisted to the side and slammed the pile of bones to the ground,

The second tried to slam a massive club into the side of her head, only to freeze when her sword sliced through it vertically. The revenant’s vision turned wobbly as its bisected body slumped in two different directions.

The third and final skeleton looked at its decimated comrades and did the smartest thing any of them had done since this whole mess started: it turned and ran.

Kagami let out a sigh of relief as the final one disappeared, only for her eyes to widen in surprise as a massive crack sounded across the field as the skeleton’s skull sailed out of the woods and landed at her feet.

“Well, isn’t this interesting.” The fencer mused as one final skeleton stepped into the light. It was larger than the rest, wearing a surprisingly well polished breast plate alongside a meticulously maintained long sword.

SWISH!

Kagami’s eyes narrowed as the revenant pulled a dagger from under his armor and threw it at her head with a well-practiced flick of the wrist.

The fencer’s snort of contempt as she batted the projectile aside died in her throat as the zombie dashed forward far faster than he should have been capable of.

He stabbed his blade at her head, only for the fencer to slice at his unprotected legs.

The undead hopped back just out of her range and brought his sword down on her head.

Kagami grunted in annoyance as she blocked the hammer like swing once.

CLANG!

Twice.

CLONG!

Thrice.

BONG! 

Scowling, the kitsune lunged and plunged her sword into the creature’s torso, through it’s armor and straight into its heart.

The creature froze for ten long seconds before it’s expression twisted into a sneer.

CRACK!

Kagami’s eyes widened in shock and horror as the revenant slammed the heel of its palm into the flat of her sword, snapping it in two.

A myriad of expressions crossed her face: shock, horror, rage, regret…

SCHNIKT!

The kitsune let out a gasp of pain as her opponent’s sword cut her open from shoulder to hip.

“What’s the matter? Are you finished already?” the zombie said in perfect French.

SWISH!

THUNK!

The armored skeleton froze as Kagami unsheathed her saber and severed her opponent’s head from its shoulders in one stroke.

“No. I am not.” Kagami replied flatly.

Shoulders heaving, blood seeping into the ground, the girl let out a pained hiss as she set about binding her wounds.

\----

It was hours later that I stumbled out of the cave, eyes bleary and hair sticking up in every direction like some kind of demonic halo. The acrid smell of smoke jolted me from my half asleep stupor.

I froze at the sight that greeted me; Kagami was kneeling in front of a massive pyre of branches, sitting on the makeshift furnace were hundreds of bones, enough to piece together multiple skeletons. The girl held out a lit branch and thrust it into the wood. Within moments, the entire conflagration lit and sent sparks dancing into the early morning air.

“What…happened here?’ I gaped.

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.” The kitsune said resolutely as she fingered her only remaining sword and walked into the woods.

It was about thirty seconds later she scampered back, hopping from foot to foot. 

“Forgot you aren’t wearing any shoes?” I smiled dryly.

“Yes.” My traveling companion hissed.

“Need a ride?” I smirked, poofing into a wolf.

“Please?” Kagami grimaced, what little dignity she had accumulated now spent as she clambered onto my now lupine back.

\----

It was several hours later that we finally reached our destination.

The cabin was small, about two stories. It was easily big enough for two people, or a single person who needed space to spread out. A simple wooden porch led to the front door.

“Finally!” I groaned, popping back into my normal form.

“Agreed. This venture has been more troublesome that either of us could have anticipated.” The fencer grimaced, hobbling up to the front door and giving it a firm knock,

No answer.

“Speaking of troublesome…” the other girl muttered, pushing the door.

My eyes widened as I sniffed the air. The moment I stepped onto the balcony, a familiar, yet alien sent suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks.

Blood.

Lots of it.

“Wait a second!” I protested as the fencer peered inside.

The moment the girl looked into the cabin, she froze in her tracks, the color draining from her face.

“What in heaven’s name…” the amber eyed girl gagged, stumbling back as she dove for the edge of the porch. 

I shook my head a peered inside.

The sight was worse than I thought. Half dried blood was splattered over nearly every inch of the living room. The couch near the fireplace was overturned and nearly cut in two. The glass coffee table was turned on its side, its transparent surface reduced to crimson shards. A nearby end table was smashed to splinters, the pictures that had previously topped it reduced to shattered hunks of twisted metal and shredded paper.

The macabre centerpiece to this fiasco was the pile of shredded meat that sat in the center of the room. Whoever had done this had reduced the poor man to the consistency of hamburger meat. Shattered meatal shards that might have previously been some kind of body armor or weapon littered the floor.

“Shit.” I muttered weakly.

“Is he…” Kagami trialed off weakly, not moving past the threshold.

“Definitely. If the owner of this place were still alive I wouldn’t be able to get in here. Rule number one of vampirism: you need permission to enter a private dwelling. If the person living there is no longer among the living, you can come and go as you please.”

“I see…” Kagami gulped, stepping over one of the many crimson puddles.

“I’m gonna give this place a once over. Check the second floor, see if whoever lived here has anything in our size.” I instructed.

My traveling companion shivered as she all but fled up the stairs.

Without another word, I bit my thumb and smeared a drop of blood across my arm.

I walked toward the couch and held up one of the magic stones I had purchased only a few days earlier.

A transparent spectral hand hovered in the air and gripped the edge of the couch, flipping them aside.

Under the left half of the couch, I picked up a warped piece of metal. A familiar face adorned with a crown of thorns was barely visible through the crumpled hunk of scrap.

Under the right half of the couch was a massive footprint. It was easily five times the size of my own.

I looked up and narrowed my eyes at the ceiling as I pulled out a second stone. The two phantasmal limbs laced their fingers as I stepped onto their joined palms.

The twin magical constructs lifted me to the ceiling. From this closer perspective, I could easily see a dent in the softwood surface about the size of a truck tire.

“Curiouser and curiouser…” I muttered, summoning a pair of tweezers from my tattoo.

I spent a solid minute rooting around splintered pine wood before I pulled a six inch, nearly transparent strand of…something…free.

My mage hands moved me to a nearby window as I held the mystery string in the dying light.

My eyes widened in surprise as the light refracted off the strand and left an aurora of multicolored spots dancing on the floor.

Resolving to figure out this latest bit of fuckery later, I wandered across the room. Tucked in a corner was a sizeable bookshelf. It contained all kinds of books: from history, to mythology, to popular fiction. The former occupant of this cabin had taken the time to keep things organized. One thing stood out; a single tome with a blue cover was haphazardly shoved into the stacks upside down. With a flick of the wrist, my spectral hands tugged the tome free and flipped through the book.

_‘Norse myths land legends’ the cover read._

If it wasn’t for the handwritten notes in the margins, I would have assumed this was brand new. My eyebrows rose at the sight of almost a dozen consecutive pages torn away from the spine.

“Huh. Isn’t that interesting…” I mused, turning back to the index.

The single word title of the missing chapter sent a chill down my spine: Ragnarök.

 _“Ok, I’m starting to get a picture of what happened here, and it’s looking worse and worse…”_ I thought grimly.

I shook my head and pulled one of the message stones out of my tattoo. The fist sized crimson rock sat in in my palm as I contemplated how to tell the boss that we needed help, or there was a very real chance the world was going to end.

“Boss, we encountered heavy opposition. Your agent is dead, and he was guarding something to do with the end of days. Please send help ASAP!” I said into the enchanted rock.

There was no reaction.

I frowned as I turned the rock over in my hand and examined it; there were no chips, cracks, or other imperfections that could have rendered it inert.

Frowning, I pulled a pair of glasses from storage and set look a long look at the immediate area.

What I saw did not give me any comfort.

Everything within eye view glowed a sickly green. Whatever spell that had suffused this place (which I suspected blocked magical communication) had seeped into everything, even the air around me. A quick glance out the window confirmed that the magical aura extended into the distance farther than I could see.

_“So, there’s no way to get in touch with Nadja, we’re facing an unknown number of opponents, and the world might end unless we can sus out whoever murdered him…” I mentally groaned, glancing at the body as I stepped into the kitchen._

\---- 

It was an hour later that Kagami padded down to the living room, now wearing an oversized flannel shirt and jeans (I immediately noted that the cuffs of the pants had been rolled up at least three times to make them semi wearable). She looked like a little kid trying on her parent’s clothes, it was surprisingly adorable.

“Any luck?” My traveling companion asked.

“A fair bit. We might be in over our heads. Whatever broke in here and killed the cabin owner was big, strong, and magically inclined. There’s a spell on this place that renders magical communication useless. But, I did manage stumble across this laptop. I was hoping I could Skype call Nadja, but this thing is password protected. And we’re not getting any info out of him.” I grimaced, gesturing to the now tablecloth covered body.

“Try Caline.” Kagami suggested.

“I’m sorry?”

“I found an album in one of the spare rooms. I think that’s his daughter’s name.”

Shrugging, I typed out the name, and much to my elation, the password screen vanished and was replaced by over a dozen icons, including skype.

“Kagami, you are a both a genius and my new favorite person!” I grinned.

“I will bear that title with pride.” The Japanese girl deadpanned.

I scrolled through the list of contacts and clicked on N. Chamack.

I waited with bated breath as the screen turned blank and the call tried to connect. 

I fought the urge to let out a happy squeal as a familiar grey skinned face suddenly appeared.

“Marianne?”

“Oh boss, am I glad to see you!” I grinned.

“It is a pleasure to see you again, Madam Chamack.” The fencer bowed her head politely. 

“Well, if it’s you calling me instead of Paul, I suppose the news isn’t good.” The Chancellor grimaced.

Wordlessly, I shifted aside and aimed the screen at the gore covered living room.

“Shit.” The dark elf hissed.

“Oh, do we have a LOT to talk about…” I growled as I weaved the tale of the last few days...

\---

Meanwhile, many miles away…

A lanky figure trudged through the woods, almost two hundred Draugr following at what they hoped was a respectful distance.

“Explain what happened again?” their leader asked a bound the chained skeleton. 

_“The girls escaped. One of them cast some kind of magic. By the time we got out of the cloud of darkness, they had already vanished. The one group that probably found them never came back.”_ The commander of the patrol who had found our camp squeaked.

“I see.” That is unfortunate. And you didn’t think to track the missing patrol down? We could have easily caught up with them by now if you had just used what little brains you still possessed.” Their leader mumbled, holding out his hand and letting his pet peck at the seeds nestled in his palm.

CRUNCH!

His free hand grew to monumental proportions and wrapped around the bound skeleton’s head, squeezing until it was reduced to powdered bone.

“My pigeon is smarter than you. I need half of you track the missing patrol and fan out from there. The remainder follow me. We have a reunion to get to…” The commander scowled as the blue tint faded from his skin. 

\---- 

“And that’s where things stand.” I finished grimly.

“Ok, so apparently my father’s agent was looking after one of the keys to the end of the world and no one thought to tell me. Thanks dad!” Nadja growled.

“And whatever information he had is long gone. We’ll search the cabin for more info, but unless a lead turns up, we’re at a dead end…” I trailed off grimly.

Kagami tapped my shoulder, “Do you smell that?”

I sniffed the air, wincing at the faint smell of brimstone.

“Give me a second boss…” I hissed, sliding out of the desk chair, and glancing out the window.

My eyes widened as black fire licked at the scrub brush, etching demonic looking symbols into the increasingly barren looking turf outside the cabin.

I closed the curtains and glanced into the still active skype program.

“We’re about to have a visitor…possibly multiple. Send help if the world doesn’t end!” I babbled, simultaneously ending the call, biting down on one of my fingers, and stowing the laptop in one of the tattoos.

“We need to hide?” my traveling companion gulped.

“We need to hide NOW!” I amended, pulling her upstairs as a feeling of wrongness permeated the atmosphere around us. The best way to describe it was that I felt like an executioner’s ax was resting on the back of my neck. 

Just as we cleared the last steps…

BANG!

A massive explosion rocked the cabin and nearly knocked us off our feet. My traveling companion barely managed to keep herself from toppling over back down the stairs.

“What was that?!” Kagami sputtered.

“I think our unexpected guest just made an appearance.” I grimaced as we rushed into one of the unoccupied bedrooms.

I peered out the window, and the sight that met my eyes left me reeling.

In the center of the flaming circle of symbols was a woman. She was tall and ethereal. She had long black hair down to the small of her back, alabaster skin, full lips, and bright green eyes. She was wearing a simple black robe that fell to her knees and fluttered in the nonexistent breeze.

Mind you, that only described the LEFT side of her, the right was another matter entirely.

The opposite side of her body looked like a rotten corpse: the skin on right side of her face was simply gone, leaving nothing but a grinning skull. 

A few scraps of muscle and flesh clung to her arm, barely leaving enough and tendons to allow the limb to operate.

“I need you to turn a fox and stay quiet!” I hissed as the unearthly figure glided up to the cabin.

Kagami bit her lip and looked glanced at the still burning hellscape that was the front lawn.

“Kami forgive me…” the Japanese girl muttered as her human form vanished and was replaced by a blood red fox with a single tail.

The fencer scampered under the bed and out of my line of sight.

My ears perked up as I heard the front door creak open.

 _“Please don’t let me get squished…”_ I thought weakly as I once again transformed into a spider. I scuttled up the wall and made my way downstairs.

The hairs on my back stood on end as I turned all eight of my eyes on the intruder.

She was (literally) hovering in the middle of the living room. Her single functional eye was closed as barely visible whirls and eddies of energy spun around her like water along a placid river.

She opened her single green eye and gazed sadly at the cadaver in the middle of the room.

 _“Wake.”_ The mystery person rasped, her voice sounding like a combination of a decades old smoker who had just gargled a cup of gravel.

The blanket covered body twitched. A one of the half mangled arms pulled the cloth aside as the dead paladin tried vainly to lever himself up, despite literally being less than half the man he once was.

Finally, after a minute of struggle, the man once known as Paul Bustier pushed the tablecloth aside and turned his mangled face toward the floating woman.

 _“Speak.”_ She commanded.

“He…he….he came in the night. A-a-a-asked about the wolf. Tried to stay silent. Th-reat-ened my Caline.” The cadaver rambled, his head flopping grotesquely from side to side.

 _“Where is Fenrir hidden?”_

“At the Van. Look for the source!” The body gurgled before flopping over backwards.

The mystery woman’s shoulders slumped as a death rattle like sigh escaped her lips.

At that moment, I made one of the arguably stupidest decisions of my life.

I scuttled to the floor and turned back to normal.

“Hello, we mean you know harm, I come in…HURK!”

I let out a yelp as the mystery woman turned her single eye on me, she thrust out her hand as an invisible, vice like grip locked around my neck.

I was yanked off my feet and dragged across the blood-soaked floor. 

I planted my feet and desperately tried to stop my involuntary crawl towards the unknown, but my efforts proved to be in vain when she grabbed me by the neck with her skeletal fingers.

 _“Who…are you?”_ she rasped, looking into my eyes.

Suddenly, it felt like my mind was fogging over. Words were passing my lips, but I had no control over what I was saying. It was like I had suddenly fallen half asleep.

“My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng, although I can’t go by that name anymore since I was turned into this. We were sent here to check on the man who guards this place.” I slurred.

_“We?”_

“Yes. Myself and my…” I trailed off as a second presence made itself known. 

“RAWG!”

CRACK!

Simultaneously, the fog around my mind lifted and the vice grip on my neck vanished.

I laid there in a daze as cracks and explosions rang out around me. 

I craned my head up and gaped at the person sized hole that had been driven through the side of the cabin. From my angle, I caught a glimpse of a person sized fox standing between me and the half rotten woman.

“Shit.” I groaned, summing up the situation nicely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for taking the time to read this. So feel free to leave a comment, constructive criticism is always welcome.


	4. Hunter and Hunted; Act II

I stumbled to my feet as my higher mental functions rebooted.

“I **hate** mind control!” I hissed as I lurched to the porch.

A wisp of fire leapt from the tip of Kagami’s tail, the mystery woman almost casually swaying to the side as the miniature fireball zipped past.

The kitsune gritted her teeth and lunged, smoke billowing around her as she turned back into a human.

Sword in hand, Kagami stabbed at the woman’s throat…

Only for the cadaverous person to catch the tip of the blade between two of her fingers.

The Japanese girl let out an angry shout as leaped and spun, her blade moving so quickly that it seemed to be in a dozen places at once.

I watched in shock was the mystery woman weaved around the midair staccato thrust with an almost criminal casualness.

The moment Kagami landed, she regarded her opponent coolly and snapped her fingers.

A dozen puffs of smoke littered the charred battlefield as twelve hazy clones materialized around the battlefield.

The half dead looking mystery person shook her head and ignored the small hoard the dogpiled her.She walked through the melee as if it wasn’t there (which given the circumstances, it probably wasn’t).

I cocked my head to the side as Kagami morphed back into a fox and leaped at the mystery woman, fangs cracking with flames.

It was at that moment I came to a revelation…and walked back into the cabin, scooped up the damaged book on Norse mythology, sat in an unbloodied armchair, and began to read.

\----

Ten minutes later, I stepped out into the fading sunlight and took in the scene before me.

Kagami was barely standing on her feet. She was drenched in sweat, one of her arms was hanging limply at her side, and she could barely hold her sword up.

“Maybe I should have researched a little faster…” I winced, pulling a scroll out of my tattoo.

“RAUUUUGH!” Kagami howled, running at her opponent.

BONK!

The kitsune stumbled backwards, clutching her skull, which had just had an up close and personal encounter with the six inch thick wall of ice I had conjured.

“That’s enough of that. While I appreciate you coming to my defense, a Goddess of Death is a little out of your weight class, Kagami. And Goddess Hel, Mistress of Nifleheim, it’s an honor to meet you.” I bowed.

“Urgh…what?” Kagami groan, shaking her head.

“We’re in the presence of divinity. And if what I read is any indication, you’re here to keep some idiot from letting your brother loose and kicking off the apocalypse early.” I smiled knowingly.

_“You would be correct. I only just learned what that idiot Eggthèr was up to. Unfortunately, we Gods are not allowed to overtly interfere…but these are not normal circumstances.”_ The goddess scowled.

“And it would probably stick in your father’s craw to have this scheme thwarted.” I grinned.

_“That would be a large benefit…”_ Hel snorted.

“I fought a goddess and lived…” Kagami mumbled, eyes glazed.

“Yes you did. Sorry I didn’t break up the fight sooner, but since she already took control of me once, I didn’t want to jump in without finding out what I was getting into.” I smiled apologetically.

“You are forgiven. But rest assured the next time you suspect that I am about to fight a Goddess, do me a favor and stop me by whatever means necessary.”

“What happened to never hesitating?”

“There is a difference between hesitation and suicide.”

“Duly noted. Now, I take it you have some idea where your brother is hidden?” I asked.

_“Under a hill not far from here, Van refers the source of this river that flows from his mouth after a sword was used to hold it open.” _The goddess nodded, gesturing to the twin waterways on either side of us.__

____

____

“Good. And hopefully we can get there before whoever is pulling the strings sets off Ragnarök. I’d really not have to explain letting the world end on my watch.”

“Our watch.” Kagami corrected.

“Oh?”

“We are in this together. Success or failure rides on both of us.” The Japanese girl amended.

_“Although I am bound not to interfere, I might be able to provide assistance.”_ The Goddess nodded.

WHOOSH!

A column of black flames leaped into the sky. When the pyre died away, in their place was a pair of skeletal horses with massive bone wings growing from their sides.

_“I will keep my back turned for two minutes. It is not my fault if these horses disappear while I’m not looking.”_ Loki’s daughter smirked slyly. 

“Out of morbid curiosity, are we allowed to keep these after everything’s said and done?” I asked innocently, a sentiment Kagami echoed if the covetous look she was shooting the undead steeds was any indication.

_“Don’t push your luck.”_ The cadaverous goddess snorted.

Without another word, Hel turned her back to us as we clambered onto our mounts. 

“YAH!” I barked, snapping the reins. 

The horses let out an unearthly whinny as they spread their nonexistent wings and shot into the sky like rockets.

The two of us soared across the sky, the air rippling around us as the clouds beneath us parted under our horse’s hoofs.

“Mother was wrong!” Kagami cackled happily.

“About what?” I bellowed back.

“She said the world was a dangerous place. She said that modern people would betray me, that mortals and magical alike would take advantage! Naïve she called me! Unwilling to see reality she said! Look at me now!” the Japanese girl laughed, 

“Sounds pretty terrible.” I frowned.

“The worst! Running away was the best decision of my life!” the kitsune whooped.

“Huh. We’re gonna have to unpack that particular revelation later. We’re about to…MRPH! I yelped as a length of parchment materialized in front of me and smacked me in the face.

“What was that?” the fox girl yelled.

I pried the message scroll off my head and scanned the neat, hand written script. When I finished, my face settled into a grin the Grinch would have been envious of.

“Oh, just an acquaintance of mine letting me know that she’s finished working on a project. And that I might be having a little fun with some psychological warfare in the near future.” I grinned evilly, twisting the reins and making my undead steed spiral through the air as we sank below the clouds and came into view of a massive, nearly mountain sized hill.

\------

“PULL!” the hook-nosed commander bellowed.

More than a hundred skeletal Draugr lad lashed lengths of chain to the massive iron barred doors barring the mouth of the river.

“Bah! We need to get this done soon! The longer this takes, the more chance some divine meddler might catch sight of us and send a wannabe hero to stop me.” The leader huffed, his pet pigeon floofing his feathers agitatedly.

BOOM!

A dozen skeletons were reduced to powder when twin streaks shot down and slammed into them like a meteor. 

”Speak of the devil…” the commander groaned.

“HELLO BONE HEADS!” I announced, grinning like a lunatic as I hopped off my skeletal horse.

The assorted ranks clattered and chattered as they glared at me.

“Allow me to clear up two misconceptions before we start smashing you into powder! The first Misconception being we are one attractive and defenseless girl and an attractive defenseless gender fluid person! This is hilariously false!” I announced.

“What fresh hell is this?” the commander groaned as he shoved his way to the front of the crowd.

“The truth is that I am an immortal vampire with an enchanted weapon and she’s a kitsune swordswoman who’s already taken a bunch of you apart with relative ease!” I grandstanded.

That chatter redoubled as Kagami manifested her single tail and I held out my hand. The space around my hand crackled as my bat suddenly appeared to the accompaniment of a pop of displaced air.

“Misconception the second, Some of you might just think that you have a chance at winning since there are more of you than there are of us and you’re not bound by the conventional concept of mortality!” I grinned, pointing at Kagami, who while I had been giving my grand speech, had summoned a fireball the size of a watermelon between her clenched palms.

“So, how about we clear this up by testing how deathless you really are?” I leered.

POW!

My traveling companion lobbed the fireball into the middle of the crowd of Draugr, showering us with bits of pulverized bone as I leaped off my undead steed.

CLONK!

The nearest skeleton learned what it’s like to fly when my bat connected with his jaw, sending his skull sailing over the horizon.

I tossed the bat (business end first) into the face of the nearest undead, sending the revenant tumbling ass over teakettle into its fellow skeletons.

I melted into mist and surged across the battlefield, reforming behind one of the larger ones.

I held out my hand and the still airborn bat vanished and reappeared in my clenched palm.

CRACK!

The oversized Drauger exploded when I slammed my weapon into his spine and reduced him to a pile of shattered calcium.

Meanwhile, while I was fulfilling my promise to turn these minions into powder, Kagami was having the time of her life.

Fire licked along the length of her blade. The draugr who had been about to try his luck found himself holding only a half melted hilt after her flaming blade sheared it off at the cross guard.

She quickly whirled and blocked a club that had been about to cave in the back of her head.

The kitsune lunged and slammed her shoulder into the unfortunate revenant who had tried to attack her, and grabbed him around the middle and lifting her victim into the air and tossed him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

Another undead broke from the crowd and charged, only to freeze in his tracks at the feral look in the girl’s eyes.

SCHNIKT!

Kagami’s sword lashed out once, and the still airborne skeleton behind her (alongside every Draugr within ten feet) exploded into flaming hunks of bone. 

“You are introducing me to whoever created that summonable bat! I want that enchantment on my sword!” The Japanese girl yelled over the din of battle as she backflipped away from a skeleton who had been about to do his darndest to slice her in two with a massive, rusty battle ax.

“Only if you teach me how to fence! Your kind of skills could come in handy!” I hollered back as I bashed a Draugr across its nonexistent ear, shattering its skull in one swipe.

“ENOUGH!” A familiar voice bellowed as a bone chilling wave of cold washed over the two of us.

I gaped at the person who had orchestrated this entire debacle. He was a tall man with wide set brown eyes and swept back blonde hair. The best way to describe him would have been average. If it wasn’t for the pigeon sitting on his shoulder, I almost wouldn’t have recognized him. Most of Paris simply knew him as Xavier Remir; the man who got chased out of pretty much every city park on a daily basis for feeding the birds.

“It will be easy Eggthèr! Bring the army I provide for you and free my son! You won’t have any trouble starting Ragnarök early! What’s the worst that could happen?! I’ll tell you what’s the worst that could happen: a pair of teenage Majesta wannabe’s interfere just as we’re about to break the world in two!” the skinny man ranted.

Everyone in the clearing froze as I shot a wide eyed look at Kagami. I did not like to look of the vein bulging on that man’s neck.

“Screw it! If your help can’t do the job right, do it yourself!” The leader hissed wrathfully.

The various skeletons pretty much summed up the gravity of the situation.

“RUN!”

“THE BOSS IS LOSING IT!”

“EVERY DRAUGR FOR THEMSELVES!”

“I’M TOO UNDEAD TO DIE AGAIN!”

I.E., each and every one of the boneheads booked it like the hounds of hell were on their collective tailbones.

At that moment, Xavier Remir changed into something MUCH bigger.

The man’s reedy body began to swell like a balloon. His arms and legs grew to monstrous proportions as his torso went from twiggy to bigger than a tree trunk in the blink of an eye. His thin flaxen hair turned bone white as it lengthened to near the small of his back.

The final nail was hammered in when two massive, stalactite like tusks grew from his jawline.

“Ok, this explains everything.” I gulped, looking up at the twenty foot tall frost giant.

“And how are we supposed to fight THAT?!” Kagami gulped.

She had a point, Draugr were easy pickings, a solid enough whack was all it took to knock them apart.

But this big boy was another matter all-together.

“You hit ‘em low, I’ll hit ‘em high?” I grinned weakly.

“I’ve worked around worse plans…” my traveling companion grimaced.

Without another word, I ran at the frost giant and hurled my bat like a javelin.

THONK!

“ARGH!” the ancient titan yelped as my weapon smacked him in the eye.

While he was stumbling around half blind, I shed my human form and turned into a falcon. I flew past him, grabbed a talonfull of his hair and yanked as hard as I could.

Eggthèr desperately tried to reach around the back his head and swat me out of the air.

THUNK!

“YEARGH!” 

The frost giant let out a bellow of pain as Kagami’s flaming saber sent two of his toes sailing into the nearby bushes.

“YOU INSOLENT PESTS! I’LL FREEZE YOUR SOULS FOR THIS!” the frost giant screamed, taking a deep breath.

To my dying day, I don’t know what clued me in that something bad was about to happen, but whatever it was saved both out hides. I let go of his hair and dove at Kagami just as she turned into a fox. I grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and flapped for the tree line as fast as my birdy body was capable of.

_WOOOOOOOOOSSSSSHHHHHHH!!!”_

The column of primordial white that shot out of Eggthèr’s rapidly ballooning gut defied description. It was like old man winter descended on the forest and cast the place into a second ice age. Within seconds, a foot of snow covered the ground as far as the eye could see. The trees around us were covered from root to branch in a thick layer of ice.

“Holy…shit!” I mentally wheezed as I turned back to normal and shook the snow form my half-frozen limbs.

Kagami’s wide eyed look of shock spoke for itself.

Eggthèr let out a feral snarl as he grabbed a nearby tree and wrenched the massive pine out of the ground in one pulled.

“COME OUT, COME OUT WHERE~EVER YOU ARE!” the frost giant crooned, hefting his improvised projectile. 

“MOVE!” I bellowed, transforming into a spider.

_“FINE! THEN I’LL SMASH THIS FOREST INTO SPLINTERS AND YOU INTO PASTE!”_ the increasingly unhinged frost giant screeched as he hurled the frozen trunk like a small meteor.

KA-POW!

The greenery around us exploded as the ballistic trunk demolished out hiding place.

_“Gotta move! Can’t stay in one place! Gotta think of a plan!”_ I mentally babbled.

“RAWG!”

I watched in shock as Kagami burst out of the snow, flames licking along her entire body.

The horse sized fox lunged and sank her fangs into the meat of the Frost giant’s arm.

“YOU INSOLENT PEST!” Eggthèr howled, about to bring his mini van sized fist down on the Kagami’s head.

It was at that moment I burst out of the tree line above their heads and landed on the frost giant’s shoulder.

The two froze as the shadows enveloped me, and something different was left in my place.

My skin became black as midnight, and my body was covered by a thick coating of orange fur. My eyes had become beady black dots that framed by rounded face and prominent lips.

Mind you, that thick carpet of shaggy hair covered my disproportionately long arms which had been enforced with thick corded muscle that could sent the average person flying with one smack.

Orangutan-me grinned, displaying a mouthful of bright white teeth.

POW!

Eggthèr reeled back as I punched in straight in the same eye my bat had dented only minutes before.

_“Guuurrrrrggghhh!”_ the frost giant gurgled as his head began to swim.

The blue skinned titan stumbled back, barely keeping his footing as my traveling companion shook her head from side to side while I laid into the increasingly desperate frost giant.

_CRRRRRKKK!_

The three of us froze, only just realizing that the giant’s backwards stumbling had taken him closer and closer to the frost covered iron doors.

_“Oh shit.”_ I thought as our opponent’s footing gave out and he tumbled backwards.

BANG!

Kagami leaped away as the twenty foot tall, multi ton frost giant slammed into the icy bars, knocking the doors off their hinges. Eggthèr and I tumbled like a pair of rolling boulders down the darkened shaft.

“OOOOOOOOK!” I bellowed.

“YEARRRRGH!” the frost giant agreed.

“Kuso…” Kagami groaned as we disappeared.

\-----

The two of us tumbled down the shaft for what seems like an eternity. I barely managed to get my head together long enough to grab a stone outcropping as Eggthèr tumbled out of sight…

The frost giant rolled and bounced off the wall, helpless against the downward momentum.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity…

THUMP!

He tumbled out of the shaft and landed on a deceptively soft surface.

“Owwwwwww…” the injured titan whimpered pitifully. Between the nauseating tumble down the path to Fenrir’s prison, and the beating he had taken only minutes earlier, Eggthèr was not in any shape to move.

He barely had the mental capacity to turn his head and look at the horizon spanning field of oddly grey grass that stretched beyond his line of sight.

“Where….am I?” the dazed Jotun asked.

 ** _“SO HUNGRY! IT’S BEEN SO LONG SINCE I’VE TASTED FRESH MEAT!”_ ** A voice that that sent shivers down the half dead giant’s spine answered. It seemed to come from everywhere at once. 

It was at that moment the ground underneath him rippled and turned ninety degrees. The frost giant once known as Xavier Remir tumbled ass over teakettle down the incline. It took him a solid minute and a half to roll from his starting point to the ground. During that period, he came to a horrifying realization: what he landed on wasn’t a field of grass. It was fur. He had landed on Fenrir’s back. And the wolf was awake.

The frost giant scrambled backwards that the now vertical place twisted and turned, revealing a skyscraper sized triangular head, with massive dagger like teeth the size of redwoods. His two burning orange eyes locked on the helpless Frost giant. For the first time in his life, Eggthèr felt like prey.

**_“RrrrrrrrrrrRAWG!_** ” Fenrir bellowed as those horizon spanning jaws snapped shut around the frost giant and everything went black.

\-----

The ground underneath me jumped as eardrum rattling howls of shock and rage sounded out from further down the cavern.

“Oh, that is not good…” I gulped as I weighed my options.

On the one hand, I could easily turn back into a falcon and fly up the shaft. Kagami and I could probably make our way to Jamaica or somewhere equally far from here before the apocalypse hit (it had always been my dream to visit Milan, and I could probably get one last shopping trip in before the end came).

“Whatever deities are listening; keep me from screwing this up…” I gulped as I let go of the stalactite I had been clinging to and slid slowly down the chute. 

The sight that met my eyes when I reached the end took my breath away.

The cavern below me was the size of a city. The sheer scope of what was below me was only dwarfed by the mindbogglingly titanic wolf chained to the floor. To say he was gigantic would have been an understatement. He was so large that his body would have stretched across Paris with room to spare. He could have easily used the Eifel tower as a toothpick if he were so inclined. He was coated in shaggy grey fur, which was broken by jagged scars that littered his torso. The part of my brain that wasn’t screaming in terror wondered what could have been powerful enough to wound this monster.

 ** _“I smell yoooouuuuuu!”_** he crooned, turning those stadium sized eyes on me. I’ll freely admit, I froze. I had faced off against some pretty powerful people in the name of my paycheck, but this was another matter all-together. I wouldn’t even constitute a hundredth of morsel to this wolf.

 ** _“I haven’t tasted undead in thousands of years!”_** the god killer growled, straining against the enchanted chains that bound him to the floor. The shackles were deceptively thin, but I could practically feel the magic radiating off them from my perch.

“I mean no offense, oh great one, but I hope you’re willing to put off tasting me just a little bit longer…” I squeaked.

 ** _“Considering how unappetizing that Frost Giant was, I could use a pallet cleanser…”_** the giga wolf leered, straining the chains to inch closer.

 _“Come on, there has so be some way to put him under! He was asleep for who knows how long, and there has to be a way to make it happen again!”_ I mentally gulped as I looked around the room for any clue to how to put Fenrir back to sleep.

I spared the still trapped wolf a glance as I tried to keep my mind from spiraling into a panic attack. Images of burning cities and mountains of bodies seared by brain as I tried to focus on the situation at hand.

 _“It’ll be my fault! If I can’t stop him, people will die! My family will die! Everyone I care about will die!”_ I gulped as I desperately looked for a solution.

I could feel by body begin to quake as my eyes rolled into my head. I was on the verge of giving into the urge to faint when I saw them: a series of familiar scratch marks in the ceiling, out of the wolfs reach: Music notes.

The carvings were rough, and about half of them were almost too faint to make out but they were there.

It was time to heap the mother of all Bull-Shits on this situation and hope that I could make it out alive.

“Oh Great and Mighty Fenrir, Ravager of cities, razer of Continents, killer of Gods, I would make a poor meal for you. But I have another talent that would be of use to someone as great as yourself!” I smiled as I clambered out of the channel and scaled the cliffside toward the ground far below.

The wolf froze and eyed me as I inched closer.

 ** _“Curious. No one has ever approached me willingly…”_** the city sized canine mused,

“If I can be honest, I’m mostly offering my services to save my own skin. I’ve heard from a number of sources that music helps aid the digestion. And since that Ice giant was so unappetizing…” I trailed off as I extracted my violin from my tattoo.

Thank all the gods I hadn’t left Crescent Rose back on the Liberty…

 ** _“I suppose I can put off eating you for a few moments…”_** the mega wolf leered.

As my executioner settled on his haunches, I started to [play.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IHP8mGY7KSs)

Fenrir’s head swayed from side to side as the unfamiliar music echoed through the cavern. It swept over the both of us, bringing a sense of calm to what would have been a mindbogglingly tense situation.

 ** _“Hmmmmm. Soooo soothing. This almost feels familiar…”_** Fenrir hummed sleepily. 

Note after note, desperately keeping my eyes locked on the ceiling far above me.

The god killer was just about to lay down on the floor when his half closed eyes suddenly snapped open and his pupils shrank to pinpricks.

 ** _“I KNOW THIS SONG! NOT AGAIN! I AM NOT SOME COMMON ANIMAL! I WILL NOT BE PUT TO SLEEP!”_** Loki’s spawn snarled, foam bubbling at the corner of his mouth.

I let out a squeak of terror as the shadows wrapped around me and I flew as fast as I could toward the exit.

I wheeled through the air, diving and wheeling as those redwood sized teeth (seriously, he could have used the Eifel tower as a toothpick!) snapped shut only millimeters from my tailfeathers.

 ** _“YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE! I WILL WATCH THIS PLANE OF EXISTANCE BURN!”_** Fenrir howled as he lunged, only to be stopped by the myriad of chains binding his body.

I flapped faster than I had ever flown before as I neared the ceiling. The wolf frantically strained against the chains, causing the cavern to echo with the tortured sounds of creaking metal.

With no other options (what was I going to do, stay up here for the rest of my life?) I tucked my wings and dove.

The air crackled and rippled around me as I fell like a stone, plummeting at two hundred miles an hour.

One hundred feet.

Two hundred feet.

Three Hundred feet.

The enchanted chains stretched to their limits as Fenrir lunged, his horizon spanning jaws open wide to swallow me whole.

I flared my wings and shot forward diving into the tiny person sized opening that I clambered out of only moments before.

 _“OhgodOhgodOhgodOhgodOhgodOhgodOhgodOhgod!!”_ I shook like a leaf as I curled into a ball a prayed to whatever god were listening that this was some horrible dream.

 ** _“COME OUUUUT LITTLE LEECH!”_** the god killer howled.

**WHA-BOOM!**

The earth under my feet shook as Fenrir took a flying leap forward and slammed his head into the cavern wall.

 ** _“COME OUUUUT! I KNOW WHERE YOU ARE! I KNOW YOUR SCENT! I KNOW YOUR TASTE!”_** the living apocalypse crooned.

I was so in over my head. Nadja had paid me to figure out if the poor sap looking out for this place was alive or dead. Nowhere in the job description had it involved confronting something like THIS!

The ground shook beneath me like an earthquake as I spiraled. There was no way out of this. There was no conceivable way I could get out of this nightmare with my skin intact.

It was at that moment everything stopped.

Have you ever had one of those moments of perfect clarity? The kind where everything just seems to slot into place. The kind where you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that, despite how bleak things may seem, there is a way out of it.

I just had one. Even though the earth beneath me was shaking, dirt and rocks raining down on my head, half deaf from the literal god killer baying for my blood, I knew I had the tools to get out of this.

I took a deep breath and clambered further up the shaft.

I sat up straight, braced myself against a stalagmite, and once more began to play.

Fenrir’s thrashing doubled as stones bigger than my head began to rain down.

 ** _“I WILL NOT GO TO SLEEP AGAIN! I AM FENRIR! I AM DEATH! I WILL NOT GO QUETLY! DO YOU HEAR ME!!!”_** The wolf screamed as he hurled himself headfirst into the wall, causing the entire cavern to quake violently.

But through it all, I continued to play, my music echoing and pounding into his crazed, bloodlust addled mind.

Slowly, the quakes started to quiet. The earth started to still.

As the lullaby soothed his thoughts, Fenrir’s limbs became heavy and his eyes started to droop.

 **“I won’t sleep…I won’t go…I know your scent. When I wake again…I’ll find you….”** The city sized canine slurred as he slumped over and went back to sleep.

“Holy crap!” I wheezed as the realization set in that I probably wasn’t going to die. 

\-----

It took nearly two hours to claw my way out of the depths of the earth. 

More than dozen times, I had to shapeshift into one of my smaller forms to slip past what would have been an insurmountable rockfall.

But eventually, I spotted a sliver of daylight in the distance. At first it seemed like my mind was playing tricks on me after all I had been through. 

But lo and behold, as I crawled along, the dot began to grow brighter, and the shaft wider.

“Hells’ Bells, let there be light!” I groaned as I clambered into the early morning dawn.

Only to freeze when I looked up and spied what could only be described as a small war camp parked right outside the cavern.

Almost a hundred tents dotted the landscape throughout the clearing. Many of the trees (that hadn’t been smashed into splinters by the rampaging frost giant) had been felled and carved into a rough wooden wall. In the center of the camp was a massive crimson war tent.

“How long was I down there?!” I thought incredulously as I stumbled toward the main entrance.

“HALT!” one of the guards (an oddly slender green skinned half orc) barked nervously, leveling a sword at me. The tip of the weapon crackled with eldritch energy.

The other person on guard duty (a massive bear of a woman with two differently colored eyes) simply shook her head and waited.

I’m sure I probably looked little better than the Draugr we had pasted only a short while ago. I was still wearing the same very frayed and dirty pajamas from several days earlier. I was probably caked in dirt, mud, and whatever else I had picked up from my tumble down to Fenrir’s cavern.

“I come in peace! The wolf’s been dealt with, provided no one else tries to wake bitchy McCranky Pants up.” I slurred tiredly.

“You can put your sword away.” The larger of the two guards deadpanned.

The half orc winced as his blade vanished into cloud of arcane sparks.

“I’m gonna need to talk to Nadja. I have one Hell of a story to tell.” I smiled weakly.

\----

Meanwhile, at the Atlantic coast…

Kagami let out a weary sigh as she rolled up her pants legs and kicked off her borrowed boots.

The skeletal Pegasus (which she had every intention of returning…eventually) nickered and whinnied at a nearby patch of scrub grass.

The saltwater washed over the girl’s toes as she tried to collect her racing thoughts.

“I’m unsure of what to do next. I’m still running with no end in sight. And while I survived a near apocalypse, I’m no stronger than when I started. And my liberal use of my powers has provided mother with a means to find me. So the only thing I can do is move on…” the Japanese girl mused dully.

 _“Don’t forget that you have to give back what you’ve stolen as well.”_ A familiar voice rasped.

The kitsune felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end as Hel materialized out of thin air right beside her.

“I was going to return Kokkaku as soon as I had the chance…” the fencer winced.

 _“That fact that you named him doesn’t inspire confidence…”_ the goddess deadpanned.

The two stood in silence as the Fox girl waited for the other shoe to drop.

“Why haven’t you punished me yet? You have every right to, and you have the power to do so. Your earlier demonstration proved that I have zero chance of laying a finger on you, let alone escaping.” The short haired girl asked.

 _“Curiosity. That and your help did grant you a small favor. If I find your reason…adequate, I might be willing to overlook your transgression.”_ The goddess replied silkily.

“My reasoning is simple. My homelife is…not ideal. I believe these marks speak for themselves…” Kagami grimaced as she unbuttoned her flannel shirt and let the fabric slide halfway down her body, revealing the patchwork of old scars across her back and shoulders.

Hel’s expression was unreadable as she watched the young Kitsune button her shirt.

“She is bound and determined to keep me under her thumb, to forge me into her version of the ideal warrior, someone who forgoes everything but the blade. So I ran. And I must keep running until I am either strong enough socially to forge my own path without reprisal, or strong enough physically to deter her.”. the dark haired girl said flatly.

Hel gazed down at the girl for what seemed like an eternity.

 _“You will not be punished for stealing from me. Instead you will perform a task. While you complete it, you will be hidden from all forms of magical sight for one year.”_ The partially rotten goddess said.

“I see. And what must I do?” Kagami gulped.

 _“Report to this address. Tell the old man who lives there that you are there to help him in any way he requires. And if he tries to turn you away, tell him I’m calling in his debt for the Shanghai incident. Simply put, Paris will be the epicenter of events that could shape the world. And if things go wrong, it could make Fenrir’s escape look like a spring breeze by comparison.”_ The Goddess said shortly.

Kagami’s eyes widened as she tried to calm her racing heartbeat.

 _“And afterward, go to this address. The couple living there will need help. Tell them an abridged version of your story, and they’ll give you sanctuary.”_ Hel said simply, handing the girl a second slip of paper as she mounted the horse and vanished in a flash of ebony flames.

Kagami looked at the twin slips of paper. For one mad second, she considered balling them up and throwing them into the sea.

The Japanese girl took a deep breath, tucked the papers in her pocket, put on her shoes, and began to walk toward the City of Lights.

\---- 

“And that’s my story. The last few days have been the mother of all clusterfucks. Kagami and I barely made it out of that mess in one piece. It’s over and done with, and like I said to the guards; as long as no one does anything stupid like going down to try to poke Fenrir in the eye, we should be OK.” I sighed tiredly.

As soon as the final words left my lips, the half orc I had met outside burst through the door.

“Boss, we have a…bit of a problem outside!” the guard gulped.

“Did the wolf wake up?” Nadja asked.

“No? But it just as pressing. The mountains gone.” The swordsman winced.

The both of us froze.

“What do you mean the hill’s Gone?! I swear; if Jester put you up to this…” the drow sputtered 

“Hey! I love that gal with al my heart, but I learned never to go along with her pranks after the platinum Dragon shrine incident. Agreeing to hold the paint was the worst decision of my life.” The half orc grimaced.

“Glad to know you have some common sense, Fjord. All of you follow me!” the copper haired drow barked as half a dozen guards followed behind us.

The sight that met my eyes froze me in my tracks. It was like someone had taken God’s ice cream scoop and carved a massive chunk out of the ground. The small mountain that rested on top of Fenrir’s prison was gone. In the span of a few minutes, it had vanished without a trace and been replaced with a small inland sea.

“Marianne?” Nadja gulped.

“Yes, Boss?” I answered.

“Do me a favor and take the next week off.”

“I was going to do that anyway.”

“Good to know. Because I’ll be too busy spending the next week getting blackout drunk to think about this latest batch of crazy.” The dusky skinned woman groaned.

\----

I was glad spent the next several days focusing on my commissions (other than one incident that forced me to take a road trip to the Vatican to hand off a package to his holiness). Normally, I prefer to keep busy, but a little quiet time did me some good.

Pity it didn’t last…

\----

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Nadja let out a pained groan as she cracked open one bleary, bloodshot eye and glared hellfire at the door to her private chambers.

 _“Grrrrnnnnnngggh!”_ the leader of Paris’s supernatural population growled as she tried to will the skull splitting headache away with little success. 

The Drow pushed herself into what could be loosely described as sitting up. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stumbled to her feet.

BANG!

Manon’s mother cursed a blue streak as she slammed hip first into the bedside table.

The copper eyed woman limped toward the door and threw it open with a massive crash.

 _“Whoever’s interrupting my me time had better be prepared for the consequences…”_ my boss growled, the flyaway hair, rumpled silk robe, and skin flaying death glare only accenting how few shits she gave at that moment. 

“Guten morgan, chief. Normally I’d let you sleep in, but ten minutes ago every single person in the city with even ze slightest amount of divination skill started saying the same prophecy at the same time.” the redheaded guard on the other side of the door said apologetically.

“I’ll be meet you in five.” Manon’s mother grimaced.

\----

It actually took two minutes for Nadja to get dressed, sober up (thanks to a little concoction her adopted father taught her how to brew), and strap on her sword.

The drow marched grimly into the streets with more than a dozen guards following on her heels.

“So, every soothsayer, prophet, and wannabe fortune teller in the city started at once huh?” the copper eye woman asked blandly.

“Every single one. We’ve had to put out more than a dozen fires since this started, both literal and figurative. I had to personally shut down a platoon of Dwarves who wanted to march into Paris to try and stop whatever was coming before it starts.” Caleb snorted dryly.

“Lovely. I hope you locked the idiots up and threw away the key. Any variation on the prophecy, or has it been the same thing every time?”

“Zey are in the stockade waiting for ze hammer to fall. As for the prophecy, it’s za same thing every time, down to the last syllable, every five minutes on the hour.” The wizard replied.

“Wonderful. And since so many people have been spouting this, it’d be impossible to keep it under wraps.” The Drow moaned, massaging her temples as she wished that she had been allowed her last few days of drunken solitude.

The guards stopped outside of a small canvas tent painted with gaudy looking starts and moons.

“Madam Trelawney’s? Really?” Nadja groaned.

“She was one of the first.” Caleb nodded as he opened the tent flap for her.

Nadja did her best to keep her expression neutral when she spied the blue skinned half demon munching on a cupcake sitting on a nearby stool.

Standing off the side, doing her best to try and look innocent was a green skinned goblin swaddled in rags with half a porcelain doll head acting as a face mask.

“You left Jester and Nott to watch over her?” The drow glared.

“Would you rather I left Grog in charge?” Caleb deadpanned.

Nadja blanched as images of Fire, chaos, bloodshed, and booze entered her mind. 

“Point taken. And for the record, I’m turning your goblin mom upside down and shaking anything in her pockets loose. And if I find one dick carved into anything that doesn’t belong to us, you and I are gonna have words Jester…” The chancellor glanced wryly at the chaotic duo as she approached the slumped form of the fortune teller. She was clad in a loose violet robe with gold stars, moons, and (for whatever reason) horseshoes. Her wrists and fingers were weighed down with a ridiculous number of rings and bangles.

“Any idea when her repeat button’s gonna go off?” Nadja asked idly as she lifted the insensate woman’s head. 

“Drei, zwei, eins…” Caleb muttered.

“As the ninth month is born, one man’s grief shall bring about a war. The old ones; lost to the ages shall sow chaos and revelation. A child shall lead them, and the youngest shall teach them. The owl’s nest is where it begins as the ninth month is born.” The soothsayer gurgled, her head snapping up, but eyes still glazed and unfocused.

Nadja’s eye twitched. 

She took a deep breath.

“I’m going to need to talk to Marianne…”

\---- 

Meanwhile, in a far off place…

The skeletal form of Hel materialized in a flash of black fire. The chasm was in the deepest, darkest part of Niflheim: a land of cold desolation, where only the most evil, honorless examples of humanity found themselves after they were shuffled off the mortal coil.

Loki’s daughter paused at a seemingly innocuous wall, completely indistinguishable from any of the other icy mile high slabs that dotted the inhospitable landscape.

“Láta segja minn…” the goddess of death whispered.

The frozen surface rippled and twisted, parting before her like curtains. The realm’s mistress stepped into the chamber beyond, and pointedly ignored the howl of pain from the chamber’s sole occupant.

The man was strapped into what could loosely be described as a throne. The back of the seat was inclined at a ninety-degree angle. Gilded bands kept his arms and legs in place, while a single golden circlet kept his head pointed straight.

Five feet above the prisoner’s face was a simple ceramic bowl. And perched above that was a shockingly realistic brass snake with eyes carved from sapphires, and golden fangs that constantly dripped venom. The poison pooled in the bowl below, occasionally overflowing and splashing the face of the prisoner.

“Father. I need to speak with you.” The goddess said flatly.

“Funny, you’re acting as if I have any choice in the maTARGH!” Loki yowled as a particularly large glob of venom escaped the bowl and splattered into his eyes. The skin blistered for ten long seconds before the wound healed and his sight was restored.

“As you can see, Daughter, I’m your captive audience. Speak your peace and leave.” The trickster scowled.

“Eggthèr! What possessed you to convince one of the few remaining frost giants to free Fenrir?! Once Odin finds out what you did…” Hel spat.

“He’ll what? Wipe out the rest of the Jotun? He’s one temper tantrum away from that already! Have me tortured? Oh wait! He already is. To use a bit of modern slang; face facts, my only chance at freedom come at the cost of ending the world. So what do I care if a few realms burn in the process?” The half frost giant sneered. He let out a scream of agony as the venom splattered into his nose, leaving him hacking and sputtering.

“If you showed even the slightest bit of empathy, the Allfather might be willing to reconsider. Until then, you’ll stay here, under my care. It’s the only kindness I can offer.” Hel scowled bitterly as she pulled a glass bottle from the depths of her robe. She spared her father one last poisonous glare before she turned around and vanished. 

Loki chortled silently to himself as his consciousness left his body and flew across the realms, intent on finding a very specific person and giving him a little nudge in the right direction.

\-----

Gabriel Agreste was a man who was teetering closer and closer to the edge of despair.

Ever since his wife had fallen into a mystically induced coma a year prior, he had desperately to keep his shattered family together, to keep his wife’s memory alive.

But nothing was working.

Medical science couldn’t bring her back. The best the world’s doctors could do was the cryogenic coffin that keep his beloved from sinking any deeper.

The few magic users he had managed to contact had been unable to discern how the broken Peacock Miraculous factored into this mess. The magic behind the bauble was too advanced for the average wizard to witch to fathom.

The only lifeline he had was the indecipherable book he had found in the ruined temple alongside the Butterfly broach and the peafowl pin.

The platinum blonde grimaced as he flipped through the pages, desperately searching for even the slightest hint of salvation. 

_“I’m a miraculous user in name only. My Kwami refuses to tell me how to activate the jewel. And my wife’s comatose body is gathering dust in my conservatory. I didn’t think it was possible to reach a new low…”_ Gabriel scowled.

“Master, please. The codex can’t be interpreted. The guardians were the only ones who knew the cypher. Beating your head against the wall won’t do you any good. It won’t do your son any good.” The tiny purple sprite pleaded.

“Nooroo, unless you have something relevant to say, do yourself a favor and be silent.” The fashion designer scowled.

The miniature god winced as his mouth was magically glued shut.

The Kwami’s despair at the situation turned to alarm as a nearly transparent figure materialized behind Gabriel.

The godling flailed his arms as he desperately tried to get his master’s attention.

The pale skinned trickster god smirked as he placed his nonexistent hands on Gabriel’s shoulders and whispered in his ears

 _“The answer’s simple, my friend; all you have to do is find the cat and the ladybug and make your wish. To do that, say four words: Nooroo, Dark wings rise.”_ Loki purred.

“Nooroo, Dark wings Rise? Could it really be that simple?” the blonde mumbled absently.

The Kwami of transmission wailed as he was drawn into his miraculous.

Gabriel gasped as his rumpled clothes were replaced by an impeccable purple suit and metallic cowl.

“I don’t believe it. It’s finally happened! With Nooro under my full control, I’ll draw out the Guardian, claim the Ladybug and Black cat for myself, and then Emile will be mine again! And no one, god or mortal, will stop me!” Papillion crowed.

\---

I gaped at Nadja, eyes wide as the past several minutes of conversation sank in.

“You want me to do WHAT?!” I squawked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for taking the time to read this. So free to leave a comment, constructive criticism is always welcome. 
> 
> Next chapter's gonna be a doozy. Get ready folks, things are only gonna pick the pace up from here on out!


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